Geospatial technologies such as remote sensing, GPS and GIS have been around for decades, but only recently have they been established as essential tools for the future of agriculture and, most importantly, global food security.
With these tools, such as precision agriculture and enabling informed decision-making, the time has come to increase and improve collaboration between historically disparate agricultural and geospatial sectors to provide meaningful answers to some of agriculture’s most pressing problems. Consider war, inflation, trade, and supply chain problems. It’s all happening as we speak.
How to do it right will be a key topic this year. AgTech Next Conference at Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri
A three-day event will be presented from 2022 World Food Award Winner, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Ph.DWho is the senior research scientist on NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies & co-located Columbia University Earth Institute Climate System Research Center.
The event will also include a panel discussion The intersection of agricultural and geospatial technologies Paul SobronCEO An impossible survey, Alison Miller, Ph.DPrincipal Investigator of the Danforth Center and Professor of Biology at St. Louis University and Vasit Saganof Taylor Geospatial Institute in St. Louis.
Doing – and seeing – much less
Sobron, whose company develops optical sensing applications for extreme environments, has a simple way of looking at the intersection of geospatial and ag: “You can see more with less,” he says. AFN.
Typically, measuring things like soil health or nutrient availability requires taking samples from the field to the lab or bringing sensors into the field. Both options are lengthy and costly processes for farmers seeking information to improve soil quality and ultimately crop yields.
Geospatial technologies such as GPS or remote sensing allow farmers to understand more about their land without expensive sampling procedures or long waiting times. Large plots of land, such as commercial farmland, will vary from area to area in terms of soil types, nutrient availability, and other factors. By telling farmers and growers where these differences are, geospatial technologies can better allocate fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, water resources and other inputs than in the past.
“You can see more, faster and cheaper from an aircraft in orbit or at a higher altitude,” Sobron said.
Andy DearingPresident of Spatial STL Consultantsshows variable rate planting in row-cropping as an area that benefits from geospatial technologies.
“Manufacturers and manufacturers are trying to figure out how to take data at the micro level and how to apply it at the macro level,” he said. AFN. “For example, being able to say, ‘I know this hybrid will do better in this type of situation, and I know that this type of situation exists in this field.’ We have 10 years of production data to provide the correct prescription for that grower and guarantee that. [crops] It performs a certain way depending on the types of conditions in the field.
Carbon farming is another area where geospatial technology holds great promise.
“If you’re no-tilling or mulching, you can measure certain soil properties from space, from orbit, and that will allow farmers to accurately determine the amount of carbon they’re claiming in the soil,” says Sobron. “So, you can get credit, come up [carbon] Trade markets and money from people who want to be compensated in a transparent way.
“In terms of surveillance, you can’t hide anymore,” Deering said. “You have satellites that pick up what’s going on every day, except hourly [in the field]He said.
They are today’s carbon markets. Frequently interrupted With reasonable control and accounting, as well as with a certain amount of data. Geospatial technologies can bring more standardized, accurate monitoring of agriculture and forestry.
Meet me in St. Louis.
Located in the heartland of America, St. Louis is in many ways the intersection of the agtech and geospatial sectors.
Sobron said the city has two things that no other city in the world has: a heritage in plant science and geospatial intelligence.
In addition to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis is home to major agtech companies such as Bayer Crop Science, Benson Hill, Covercress (in which Bayer recently acquired a majority stake), ProductionLab, and others. “Innovators with the knowledge that can transform research and innovation into actionable products and services for farmers are critical thinkers,” says Sobron.
On the geospatial side, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency-West and their Moonshot labs at T-REX, the Taylor Geospatial Institute and St. Louis University have attracted a lot of talent to the city.
“As far as I know, there’s no city that has two big places that can be put together,” Sobron said.
“We have a large national security presence in St. Louis. [geospatial stuff] And that’s our foundation, but our next wave of opportunity is agtech moving in there,” Deering says. “Row crops or insurance or carbon credits, it all has a geospatial component to it. By taking these two clusters and bringing them together to solve those problems, we are a really big solution to some global challenges.
Learn more from these and other experts at AgTech NEXT, taking place October 11 – 13. Early bird tickets are available until September 1st. Book your place.
