Farming With Satellite Data: EOSDA Crop Monitoring Overview

Satellites have long stopped being a government’s tool used for military purposes. Today, they are used across dozens of industries, offering specific advantages to each. Among those industries, agriculture stands out as the one that has managed to achieve a level of digitalization previously unthinkable for such a traditional sphere. Satellite data has revolutionized farming in many ways. The market offers a variety of software that leverage satellite imagery analytics to help make growers’ lives easier and their yields higher.

One of such is the EOSDA Crop Monitoring by EOS Data Analytics — a tool that combines the power of satellite imaging and cutting-edge analytics to arm farmers with indispensable insights into crop state, growth trends, and potential concerns. With this comprehensive data, making astute decisions becomes effortless, enabling proactive steps to foster farm efficiency.

The platform stands as an avant-garde satellite-driven precision farming solution catering not only to food producers but also extending its benefits to insurance firms, input suppliers, and diverse agricultural stakeholders. Crop well-being, meteorological conditions, crop rotation dynamics, field operations, terrain details, soil moisture analytics, and an array of other critical factors — all harmoniously integrated within an intuitive interface.

Zooming In On Platform Features

EOSDA Crop Monitoring harnesses high-resolution satellite imagery to offer comprehensive field analysis, enabling detailed monitoring of crop health and continual tracking of changes. Let’s get into more detail on the tool’s actual features and what they have in store for the growers:

• Field monitoring feature facilitates early detection of various crop health issues: stress, diseases, pests, and weeds. Swift identification accelerates decision-making, saving time and costs while enhancing yields.
• The Team account feature grants access to vital field and crop information for various stakeholders, allowing tailored accessibility levels set by team owners.
• Refined satellite-guided scouting optimizes field management by enabling precise identification of problem areas to guide scouts efficiently without guesswork. On top of that, online task assignments and mobile app functionality make it even more convenient for all parties.
• Accurate local weather forecasts spanning 14 days, combined with historical weather data since 1979, empower farmers to plan field activities effectively.
• Utilizing vegetation and productivity maps derived from reliable satellite data aids in variable-rate application of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, reducing waste while maximizing productivity. And the Multilayer map feature enhances precision by merging vegetation and elevation layers for optimal planning.
• Crop rotation calendars, area views for each crop type, sowing history, and Season analytics tools offer a comprehensive understanding of farm performance, guiding strategic improvements.
• Forecasting disease occurrence with Disease risk feature aids in planning effective chemical spraying, optimizing farm activities and expenditures.
• Satellite-derived vegetation and moisture indices offer critical insights into crop health at all stages, enabling well-informed decisions.
• Data manager allows uploading data on field activities from your vehicle to the platform and visualizing it for further assessment.

Apart from default features, EOSDA also offers custom solutions for specific customer needs. These include yield prediction, crop type classification, field boundaries detection, harvest dynamics monitoring. But, in this piece, we will focus on the one called advanced soil moisture analytics.

Advanced Soil Moisture Analytics Solution

Employing data from various satellites scanning global soil moisture using microwave radiation, EOSDA's team of dedicated R&D scientists applies proprietary algorithms. These algorithms process the imagery to construct precise soil moisture analytics models, yielding surface-level and root-level soil moisture maps. These maps serve purposes ranging from daily monitoring to accurate yield projections and the analysis of climatic patterns.

The dataset encompasses essential features:

• Surface-level (0-7cm) and root-zone (up to 70cm) soil moisture data
• 250m resolution for broad-scale data analysis
• Historical records since 2002 updated daily
• Unaffected by atmospheric interference like clouds or vegetation
• Global revisits every 2-3 days

When integrated with other data, these soil moisture maps become instrumental in refining agricultural strategies, forecasting yields, monitoring weather conditions, and more.

Crucially, these maps pinpoint areas unsuitable for crop cultivation due to extreme soil conditions, thereby refining planting strategies and enhancing the accuracy of field-level statistics.

For irrigation strategies, precise soil moisture content map aids in conserving energy and water while averting crop stress, ultimately leading to increased yields.

Remote soil moisture monitoring not only supports immediate agricultural needs but also contributes to sustainability efforts by aiding in climate change modeling and the development of mitigation strategies. Moreover, for insurance companies, having access to historical seasonal soil moisture maps since 2002 facilitates comprehensive regional risk assessments, thereby enabling better-informed decisions concerning payouts related to droughts and waterlogging incidents.

Benefits

Now that we’ve covered the platform’ features, let’s go though some of the benefits the users get when using them: 

• Effective multi-field management and resource allocation, tailored to diverse user needs
• Timely alerts on weather predictions, crop stress, soil moisture, and changes in crop states
• Minimization of waste and expenses on fertilizers, water, and more.
• Seamless planning and tracking of agricultural activities across crops
• Trend analysis across various datasets
• Increasing farm sustainability.

EOSDA Crop Monitoring stands as a revolutionizing force in modern day farming. Its distinctiveness lies in delivering practical, satellite-derived insights, setting a new benchmark in precision agriculture. Whether in the hands of a small-scale farmer or overseeing vast agricultural endeavors, this tool holds equally vast potential in terms of fostering a transformative shift in farming methodologies. Its thoroughly developed suite of features and user-friendly interface facilitate informed decision-making, driving efficiency and productivity in agricultural operations.

Disclosure: This review was based on personal experience and research into EOSDA Crop Monitoring. However, individual experiences may vary.