AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS ASSISTED BY REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS: EXPERIENCE AND PERSPECTIVES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the available experience, present situation and perspectives in the field of agricultural statistics assisted by remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems techniques in central and eastern Europe. Special attention is given to the transfer of tools initially developed within the framework of the European Union MARS (Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing) Project for Directorate General VI (Agriculture) and Eurostat:- regional inventories based on area frame sampling techniques (stratification with existing maps or satellite imagery, random sampling per block, field survey in selected segments with aerial photographs, acreage calculation per crop at segment level, extrapolation at regional or country levels)- crop growth modelling and crop yield assessment, with special reference to the Crop Growth Monitoring System (CGMS) developed by the Joint Research Centre for agricultural monitoring at European Union level. This System uses Wofost deterministic crop growth model and is based on the following input data on a 50 km x 50 km grid: meteorological data, digital soil map with 1:1 000 000 scale information content, crop phenology data, sowing dates per crop and variety, historical agricultural statistics. Methodologies used are summarised. The achievements of MERA (MARS and Environmenta