Space technology has been of great importance for the technological revolutions that humanity has reached. With the technological developments that came with the arrival of the human being to the moon, we have been able to have GPS, or technologies to access drinking water. It has also been found that satellite images allow us to obtain information on borders, mobility or infrastructure projects, which helps to build a society with more information and more accurate knowledge of reality.
Thus, with the great scientific and technological growth of the sector, it has also reached agriculture and aquaculture. In this way, technology goes beyond outer space, allowing greater stability and lower cost in the new ways of crop inspection and study of the land.
With respect to agriculture, we find that outer space brings great change to the sector and its communities. This is because, beyond having a satellite in orbit, organizations and companies have been able to interpret the data they obtain to optimize their processes in agriculture, giving greater precision and allowing them to know the situation of the land, composition, and even the need to use certain seeds or fertilizers. In this way, farmers are maximizing land yields, increasing productivity, and reducing environmental impact by knowing which herbicides to use with greater precision.
With the benefits this industry has brought to agricultural productivity and food security in general, companies have emerged to provide these land monitoring and knowledge services. One such company, Pixxel Space of India, provides high-resolution imagery and claims that, through this, crop health can be monitored, variations can be detected, and yields can be improved. The use of these satellite images has grown so much that the company has secured $33 million in funding.
Another company providing geospatial information services is SpaceWill, located in Beijing, China. Through their image processing and analysis, they have been able to provide coordinates and references for a better understanding of land use, optimizing it and helping to effectively protect crops.
Advantages in agriculture
Even though we are aware of the benefits that the space sector has brought, it can still be difficult to make the leap towards the use of satellite images and data processing. However, it is important to mention that, digging a little deeper, we find that they can really help to optimize processes. Pixxel explains the advantages in agriculture, stating that the data captured by its satellite has the potential to replace manual inspection, monitoring spatio-temporal variations. Also, hand in hand with ground infrastructure, they can study the soil and detect pests or infections through very high quality images.
Related to this, in Southeast Asia we find Geo-Insights from ST Engineering, a Singaporean company. It uses remote sensing data to generate information for the agricultural industry. Thus, it helps sustainability in the processes by providing precision and crop health monitoring, in addition to many other services. Ángela Díaz shares some of this, mentioning that there is also monitoring in the aquaculture sector:
“The company also has solutions to increase maritime safety. We know that fish production in Latin America is one of the highest in the world, and it is important to ensure the safety of the food supply. This can be done by detecting suspicious vessels to reduce illegal activities and ensure the integrity of the area.”
With respect to fertilizer use, the misuse of fertilizers has been identified as a factor that detracts from the productivity of land use. According to World Bank data, although Colombia has greatly reduced the amount of fertilizer per hectare, it is still high, especially when compared to other countries. This causes the soil to receive more nutrition than necessary and also increases production costs.