Ioonos

Smile please, your picture is being taken!

In France, hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops are photographed by satellites. At an altitude of 830 kilometres, Spot* satellites in geosynchronous* orbit can take their picture with a resolution of ten to twenty metres. Pilot operations are in progress in the UK, Spain, Canada, Australia….

Why do we need pictures?

Farmers that have subscribed to the Farmstar service (run by Infoterra*) are supplied with images of their fields that display a wide range of colours. Each colour corresponds to a soil condition and to its requirements.
 Farmers can grade and identify the soil requirements in different parts of a section of land, in particular in terms of fertilizer, the idea being to limit its use to targeted areas of the crops. For corn or beetroot they can also determine water requirements and so decide when to start irrigation, again the idea being to avoid over-use.

From sowing to harvest

This application was first used with wheat. Every year the farmer receives five maps between February and May, helping decisions to be made during the various critical stages of the crop.
Whether the crop has taken or failed can be checked from the image of the field seen from the sky after sowing. Later on, the satellite image can show if there will be a good yield, or in other words how much the farmer can expect to harvest. An indication of quality is also given. Depending on the result the wheat will either be used as animal feed or to make flour!