Sat2Farm: Increasing farm income by using satellite remote sensing

By Dr. Sat Kumar Tomer and Vijaya Pramathi V. S

Farming, especially in developing countries, faces various risks due to climate change, pests and diseases, drought, floods, erratic rains, and so on. The challenges in agrarian countries e.g. India where 263.1 million people, roughly about 60 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture, or the related activities are unique. According to the findings of FAO, approximately a quarter of all the damages caused by natural calamities such as drought, floods, storms, or tsunamis in developing countries are burdened upon the agriculture sector. Particularly during drought periods, agriculture absorbs up to 84 percent of all economic impacts. Within the agricultural sector, 42 percent of assessed losses were associated with crop production.

In developing countries, these damages and losses are often incurred by poor rural and semi-rural communities whose land holdings are fragmented e.g. in India more than three-fourths of farmers in India are small-holder farmers who own less than 2 hectare of land and lack the financial resources needed to regain lost livelihoods.

With the increasing population, the number of small-holdings is also increasing. Even after the green revolution, crop productivity in India lags in comparison to the larger part of the world. On that note precision farming or smart agriculture allows us to increase crop productivity and minimize the input requirements – reducing the impact on the environment. However, precision agriculture tools are not affordable for small-holder farmers. Hence the technical solutions like the availability of free and high-resolution satellite remote sensing data offer an opportunity for us to take precision farming to the small-holders and fit right into the socio-economical ecosystem that already exists.

What is Remote Sensing?

Remote sensing is the acquisition of information from a distance. Various space agencies (e.g. NASA, ISRO) observe Earth and other planetary bodies using sensors aboard satellites that detect and record reflected or emitted energy. Remote sensors, which provide a global perspective and a wealth of data about Earth systems, enable data-informed decision-making based on the current and future state of our planet.

With the availability of global satellite data providing information in several wavelengths at higher spatial resolution (~10 m), we can now monitor the farms and get valuable insights into the farm remotely also. With the help of satellite data, information like soil moisture, crop health, flood loss, and soil nutrients (NPK, soil organic carbon, pH value) can be easily and regularly gathered.

Satyukt has developed a mobile app, sat2farm which allows farmers to just walk around their farm – geotag it and start getting the regular information specific to their farm. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.satyukt.myfarmapp)

Sat2Farm mobile and web app

To easily access and visualize the satellite data over any farm on the globe, Satyukt Analytics has developed mobile (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.satyukt.myfarmapp) and web applications (www.sat2farm.com). The data availability at all times for each of the farmers at their fingertips certainly strengthens the decision-making process and ultimately optimizes resource utilization as a whole. Following are the services/information available through the mobile app:

1. Land area mapping: With the help of satellite data, get the area of a farm within minutes in the locally used units like Bigha/Gunta as well as Hectares.

2. Crop health monitoring: Monitor the crop health in your farms by getting indices like NDVI, EVI, RVI, etc to exactly identify the location of the crisis to focus on the most important issue on the farm rather than scouting all around the field.

3. Scientific crop calendar: Specific and recommended packages of practice are available at all times for each of the crops grown to ensure timely farm operations and reduce the risk of overutilizing valuable farm resources like inputs, irrigation water, pesticides, fungicides, etc.

4. Forecast of pest/disease: Based on factors such as RH, temperature, and other agronomic parameters, warnings are provided to the farmers of pest/disease outbreaks and along with it suitable control measures are also suggested. This feature enhances the preparedness of the farmer to withstand potential pest/disease threats.

Sat2Farm platform is useful for

Farmers
FPO
Agri-input companies
Agri-output companies
Government departments
NGO

5. Identification of pests and disease infestation: Through the camera feature available in the application, the farmers are provided timely advice. Helps the farmers in rightly identifying the type of infestation or infection and get data on the right pest and disease control mechanisms to be used to avoid considerable loss in yield and quality of the produce.

6. Satellite-based soil moisture estimation: Helps the farmers in locating the potential surface water available for the crop uptake in their entire field and in deciding the type of crop that can be grown in the soil. It also helps the farmers in deciding the right irrigation water management strategies and the right system of irrigation to be used considering the available water content over a period of time.

7. Optimal irrigation requirement estimation: Determine whether a particular soil is moisture deficient or not and helps in planning the irrigation needs for obtaining satisfactory yields. The irrigation advisory provided will not only help the farmers in planning their irrigation needs but will also benefit the farmers by ensuring minimum wastage of water resources ensuring more yield per drop of irrigation water.

8. Weather forecast: Get the next 15 days’ weather forecast and plan your farming activities (e.g. sowing, harvesting) accordingly.

9. Crop nutrient deficiency detection: The cumbersome and time-consuming process of soil macronutrient testing for each and every farm will be done with Sat2Farm easily without much hustle and will be readily available with the farmer himself for reference. This will help in determining the extent of crop nutrient deficiency and come up with remedies that would benefit the nutrient uptake in crops, hence increasing the overall crop yield. This also helps the organic farming and natural farming enthusiasts in analyzing the SoC more frequently, thus improving the overall health of the soil through remote sensing.

We at Satyukt analytics have developed solutions and worked on various projects in association with IISc, KSNDMC and others. We are open for discussion and collaboration on the part of our products and solutions.