During the Russia-Africa Summit held in St. Petersburg on July 27 and 28, a trilateral agreement aimed at fostering collaboration in agricultural technologies was signed between Geoscan, the Ministry of Agriculture of The Gambia, and CPS, a developer of geoinformation systems. This event was held in our St. Petersburg office, where the partners had the opportunity to explore our drone innovations, software products, and capabilities to process large-scale spatial data processing.
The meeting was attended by The Gambia's Minister of Agriculture Demba Sabally, Deputy Permanent Secretary Bintou Gassama and agronomy expert Lamin Sonko, as well as Victor Kononov from CPS and representatives of our company. Extensive discussions were held, exploring the wide range of possibilities offered by UAV technologies in various sectors, from education to geological surveys. The central theme, however, revolved around the application of UAVs in agriculture, for the creation of digital maps, and the updating of a geoinformation system – the most promising tools for the development of an agrarian country.
"We presented our projects conducted in Africa and Southeast Asia, and shared successful case studies related to rice cultivation. For instance, we conducted multispectral imaging using our proprietary camera for the Federal Scientific Center of Rice in Krasnodar. In The Gambia, the agricultural sector constitutes approximately 75 percent of the country's commerce, engaging a substantial portion of the able-bodied populace, with rice being one of the primary export commodities. As a result, our partners expressed particular interest in our capabilities and experience in addressing challenges within this domain", explained the official spokesperson of Geoscan.
Negotiations had already commenced prior to the summit, defining the terms of collaboration and outlining potential academic programs with the University of The Gambia. Currently, we are discussing the terms and conditions for a pilot project that will enable our partners to test our company's technologies for their own projects.