Why

ASAP supports multi-agency early warning initiatives and provides information to food security assessments, to the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) and to Cadre Harmonisé, which are the main data source of the annual Global Report on Food Crises. It also directly feeds into the GEOGLAM Crop Monitor for Early Warning.

What

- Monthly agricultural hotspots classification analysis and short regional and country overview by JRC experts (Home and Country assessment pages)
- Seasonal rainfall forecast and skills maps based on COPERNICUS C3S data (Seasonal Forecast)
- Ten-daily updates of agro-meteo and biophysical indicators for agricultural monitoring in an open access and user friendly web interface (Warning Explorer)
- Zoom into hotspot areas with high resolution imagery for vegetation anomaly mapping at parcel level (High Resolution Viewer)

How

ASAP provides information mainly at two levels:
1) monthly identification of agricultural production hotspot countries and summary narratives by JRC experts for agriculture and food security analysts, for example in DG INTPA and EU delegations;
2) ten-daily automatic warnings about low or delayed vegetation performance at province level plus weather and Earth Observation vegetation indicators for JRC and external technical experts.

Where

The hotspot identification focusses on 80 countries:
- with EU intervention in food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture;
- or which are monitored by the GEOGLAM Crop Monitor for Early Warning.

When

The automatic warnings at provincial level are published on the Warning Explorer every ten days two or three days after the end of each ten-daily period (e.g. 2nd-3rd, 12th-13th, 22nd-23rd of each month).
The hotspot assessment is published at the end of each month (e.g. after 27th) with information related to the previous 30 days.

Who

The ASAP system is developed and maintained by the ASAP Team at the Food Security unit of JRC (European Commission).