Agriculture is looking to space in latest push to improve crop yields
CALGARY Farmers are looking to space in the continuous push to better know what’s going on in their fields, and a growing number of public and private initiatives are helping get them there.
One of the latest is a partnership between Winnipeg-based Farmers Edge and San Francisco-based Planet announced Wednesday, with the two planning to combine precision agriculture programs with what they say is the world’s largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites to better monitor the health of crops.
Wade Barnes, president of Farmers Edge, and a farmer himself, said the technology is one of the most exciting developments in agriculture he’s ever seen.
“We’re actually going to save agriculture,” he said in an interview ahead of the announcement.
“With this technology, we’re going to save crops.”
The snapshots of the field, taken almost daily by Planet’s current 190 Earth-imaging satellites, provide what they say is a clear and regularly updated picture of the growing conditions in the field, possibly alerting a farmer to something like a growing infestation of army worms eating at their wheat field.
“Suddenly now, I can look inside my fields, I can see a crop problem, and I can act on it, and remedy it,” said Barnes.
For the most part, he added, farmers have had to rely on consultants to physically drive through fields to check on early conditions; once crops start to grow, they’ve been limited to seeing what’s going on from the road.
Drones promised to bring an end to that problem, but Barnes said they’re proving more difficult to operate than expected.
“Everyone thought drones would fix this problem of frequency, but the problem was drones are just too much work and just weren’t logistically feasible.”
The challenges with drones are compounded by the increasing size of farms, said Andrew Pylypchuk, account lead for Farmers Edge at Planet, something he says satellites help address.
“Growers are able, at breakfast time, to have an overview on all their fields and decide where’s the most efficient use of their time and resources and pick the fields that need the most help on that particular day.”
The collaboration between the two companies is by no means the first foray into satellite-imagery farming.
For years, various government agencies and private satellites have allowed farmers to access a bird’s-eye view of their fields.