## 4 The Role of Government, Investors, Policymakers and NGOs  
In 2002, the gap between Earth observation and science policy in the UK was analysed and the conclusions are still valid globally in which the major limitation has been the lack of a mature marketplace [221]. After 20 years, [PERSON] et al. [222] came to a similar conclusion in their recent policy brief: existing shared data and products are not meeting African demands due to the large gap between Earth observation capabilities and science policy in African countries and the major role of Global North institutions in shaping technology resource strategy [222; 223]. In recent decades, RS technology has advanced significantly and large numbers of satellite sensor images at different spatial and temporal resolutions have been made freely available to help tackle multiple challenges in different application domains [224]. Although the current data offered by various satellite sensors have met the requirements of many agricultural decision-makers, such techniques and data have not been incorporated effectively into the agricultural monitoring systems of many ASA countries [29; 223]. There are several possible explanations for this, including (i) lack of capacity to understand and analyse RS data and (ii) lack of infrastructure such as computational power and internet connectivity to process and analyse the data [223; 225; 226]. Full exploitation of EO data for agricultural monitoring will require sufficient networking and training, and financial support to purchase or update equipment to be able to keep up with advances in technology. Moreover, training opportunities provided by university courses in RS and geomatics, and training centres in spatial technologies, are in short supply and located in only a few countries in Africa [222]. Furthermore, often the people who have taken advanced courses and training are assigned to unrelated tasks and are not able to employ or transfer the knowledge gained [225].  
It does not matter how advanced the RS technology becomes and how many free satellite sensor images will be available in the future if the capability to adapt them is insufficiently developed. Governments and their associated infrastructures in ASA regions might lack the required trained staff or general understanding to be able to take advantage of such techniques to improve agricultural management and incorporate them into their decision-making processes [223]. Thus, governments and investors should focus on strengthening the capacities in ASA countries by providing technical assistance and training. This will help these countries to provide and sustain solutions to issues that are appropriate for their socio-economic and environmental security. Governments and NGOs should rely on free, fine spatial and temporal resolution satellite sensor imagery such as from Landsat and Sentinel to make the systems sustainable and scalable and economically viable. In addition, all satellite sensor images (recent and historical) should be easily accessible. In particular, satellite sensor images and their derivative products that are financed by public funds should be publicly available. Some of these challenges and suggestions could be true in other parts of the world, but due to security issues, lack of data and data quality issues, the fragile environment and lack of resources in these regions, adopting RS approaches to monitor agriculture productivity is urgently needed.