Satellites Could Measure Crop Nutrients Over Large Areas

Figure: Photo Source: The European Space Agency.

Researchers from the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the National Research Council of Italy found that the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission and Italian Prisma mission could be used to monitor nutrients in crops from a satellite.

The nutritional content of crops is usually measured during the harvesting period. Nowadays, most satellites are not sensitive to crop nutrients. Hence, the researchers conducted a study that looked into the potential use of satellites to predict the nutritional value of staple crops, such as corn, rice, soybean, and wheat.

This research could help inform farmers of the nutritional value of crops early in the season. With this data, farmers could perform necessary agricultural interventions to boost grain quality. Moreover, this method is believed to be more cost-effective and less time-consuming compared to conventional methods when monitoring nutrient concentration on a large scale.

For more information, read the article from The European Space Agency.

See https://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=20482