How to Monitor Crop Health Using Satellites
- Monitoring crop health using satellite imagery contributes to efficient farming, enhanced yields, and increased profits.
- It’s important to choose the right satellite technologies for crop health monitoring based on the needs and budget.
- Using satellites together with agri-cameras helps to collect more accurate and comprehensive data on the health of your crops.
Agricultural production has come a long way. There was a time when one had to walk through their fields to monitor crop health — that’s not the case anymore. With the right tools and technologies, like satellite imagery, you can have an idea of what’s happening in your field without moving.
In addition to saving time, crop health monitoring through satellites has brought benefits like reducing wastage and promoting precision farming. Remote sensing ensures that tracking crop health and growth takes a shorter time and provides real-time data, increasing efficiency in the agricultural industry.
Key Satellite Technologies for Crop Health Monitoring
Governments, farmers, and organizations have embraced satellite monitoring systems for field monitoring to improve crop yield and food security. Many technologies can be used to achieve this; here are the main ones.
1. Multispectral and Hyperspectral Imaging
Multispectral and hyperspectral imaging technologies give you the ability to see what the naked eye can’t. Multispectral imaging captures and records few but broad spectral bands (3 to 10), while hyperspectral imaging captures hundreds or narrow wavebands.
Both technologies can help identify plant stress before the human eye does, by analyzing changes in light reflection patterns. This lets you take note of nutrient deficiencies and disease and pest infestations early and intervene in time. However, hyperspectral tends to provide more details about the condition of a plant. For example, it can give more precise LAI (leaf area index) measurements by capturing bands related to chlorophyll content or leaf structure.
2. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
The NDVI index uses satellite imaging to show you whether your crops are struggling or thriving. The conclusion comes from measuring vegetation growth in the chosen area, which involves identifying the ratio of reflected red and near-infrared light. By analyzing NDVI values, you can get insights into what your plants may need, such as watering or fertilization.
3. Other Vegetation Indices (EVI, GNDVI, SAVI)
Aside from NDVI, other indices are used depending on the environmental conditions to increase accuracy:
- Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI): Interferences like dust and clouds, which we call atmospheric noise, tend to prevent satellites from capturing accurate data. EVI corrects or minimizes such noise, promoting accuracy.
- Green NDVI (GNDVI): Just like the name suggests, GNDVI has to do with the greenness of plants. It helps you get insight into your crops’ photosynthetic activities.
- Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI): Since soil tends to degrade over time, this index can give you insight into the soil’s condition by measuring its brightness.
4. Thermal Imaging
Thermal imaging is used to provide insights into the watering needs of the plant. It detects infrared radiation emitted from the earth's surface, which helps to identify moisture levels in the soil.
5. Radar and SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar)
These technologies are used in cloudy conditions or during the night. Since they don’t get affected by weather conditions, they allow for continuous monitoring.
How to Use Satellite Data for Crop Monitoring
Agriculture satellite imagery allows proactive farming. With a crop monitoring system, you can do the following:
- Detect Stress and Diseases Early: Problems detected late can lead to huge losses. Satellite data allows you to detect anomalies on time and act quickly before they spread. You can confirm suspected issues with portable on-the-ground devices such as the Cropler agri-camera to ensure accuracy.
- Optimize Irrigation: Areas where water is scarce can benefit hugely from satellite imagery. You can oversee larger fields faster and define which of them need watering.
- Improve Fertilization and Nutrient Management: Just because plants are in the same field, it doesn’t mean they have the same nutritional needs. With satellite imagery, you get data on which side of the field could do with replenishing and which side is doing well.
- Detect Weeds and Pests: Weeds and pests can spread fast and have detrimental effects. Satellite images can help identify such anomalies early on and precisely, so you’ll know where to apply pesticides.
Enhance Harvest Planning: Vegetation indices monitor crops as they mature. This can help you estimate when you’ll harvest and even the size of the harvest, which contributes to adequate harvesting plans.
Practical Steps for Farmers and Agronomists
So, what’s next once you know about the use of satellite images for farming? Here are the steps to ensure you use satellite technology for agricultural monitoring effectively.
Pick the Right Satellite Platform
You can choose free or paid platforms. Landsat and Sentinel-2 are free of charge — however, there are a few things you’ll have to sacrifice. For instance, the spectral information won’t be as detailed. In addition, they come with longer revisiting times, meaning you can’t collect data frequently.
Planet Scope and Airbus Pleiades will cost you a buck. However, you will get detailed information frequently (sometimes thrice a day).
Integrate Satellite Data With Farm Management Systems
Having satellite images of a field won't help much if you lack the tools to interpret the data. GIS tools and precision agriculture software are farm management tools that analyze the information collected by satellites and give you real-time insights.
Field Validation and Calibration
As we had mentioned earlier, don’t rely on satellites alone. Make use of drones or agri-cameras to verify the data from satellites is accurate and get additional details.
Automating Alerts and Reports
The last step in setting up your satellite monitoring system is automating alerts and reports through AI-driven platforms like the Cropler web platform. Through such platforms you get real-time alerts like water stress, helping you respond in time.
When you have questions, we'll help you find the answers you need to take control of your fields and the harvest you care about. Contact Cropler to discover more about our products and the ways we help you proactively protect your operations from the effects of crop diseases. Learn More
What’s Next for Satellite-Based Crop Monitoring
Technology is always evolving to make life easier, and we can expect the same for satellite-based crop monitoring. We shall likely see more providers offering this service. This will lead to competition, and of course, better products giving us detailed spectral information.
The availability of more providers also means that the technology becomes accessible to more farmers, including those practicing on a small scale.
Since AI is being incorporated in almost all aspects of life, it’s likely to be integrated into satellite farming as well. This means farmers will have a tool that interprets data well and predicts outcomes such as possible yields.
And lastly, more drones and IoT devices on the ground are likely to be used alongside satellite images for accurate monitoring.
Advantages of Cropler Over Satellite Images
Even though satellite images are helpful, you may need a ground camera to verify the satellite data. The Cropler agri-camera detects early signs of plant anomalies allowing for faster intervention, unlike satellite images that reveal issues when they’re already rather severe.
Cropler also allows daily monitoring by capturing data three times a day. With such frequency, hardly will you miss an issue happening in your field.
To ensure accuracy when it comes to farm monitoring, use the Cropler camera alongside satellite imagery. This ensures high-resolution images and early-stage detection before visible damage appears.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a large-scale or small-scale farmer, include satellite monitoring in your agricultural practices. You’ll reduce the need for a regular manual swipe through your field, make informed decisions, and boost yields. In addition, you’ll be practicing sustainable farming, protecting the environment while at it.
Are you interested in learning how you can use your Cropler camera and AI-driven web platform alongside satellite imagery? Talk to us!
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