Making the most of water in farming is key to keeping food supply sustainable and protecting the environment. By using water wisely and precisely instead of overapplying it, farmland owners can stop soil from wearing away and grow more crops, helping to meet the rising need for food around the world.

This is where remote agriculture monitoring solutions are needed. Satellites provide farmers with real-time insights into soil moisture levels, crop health monitoring, and weather conditions, enabling precise irrigation strategies. Such a far-from-traditional approach not only conserves water but also boosts agricultural productivity. Farm monitoring software can continuously monitor soil moisture levels and make farming more efficient and resilient, securing future food supplies while minimizing water waste.

By leveraging satellite technology for remote soil moisture monitoring, farming can become more efficient and resilient, securing future food supplies while minimizing water waste.

Why it’s important

In agriculture, soil moisture analytics of the field helps to manage water efficiently for sustainable farming. Therefore, crops get the right level of water. Good management increases crop production by allowing the correct level of water to be applied on the crops and stopping the stresses on the plants due to low or high water levels, making them stressed or washing out some nutrients useful for growth. By tapping into advanced satellite soil moisture analytics, farmers are empowered to make data-driven decisions leading to healthier plants and productive harvests.

Beyond returns, efficient water use continues to be sustainable considering that it makes sure the availability of water resources is conserved and also that the soil remains fertile and productive for future planting seasons. Proper water management also takes care of environmental conservation: it ensures that ecosystems are not destroyed and that biodiversity is maintained, mitigating the effects of climate change. For example, lesser instances of water wastage and runoff protect local rivers and lakes from the destruction of habitat for wildlife.

In essence, efficient water resource management, underpinned by smart soil moisture analytics, is about more than just growing crops — it’s about nurturing a sustainable future. By optimizing water use, we ensure abundant harvests, safeguard our environment, and build resilient agricultural systems for the years to come.

How satellite data enhances water resource management

Irrigated agriculture today accounts for a staggering 70% of all freshwater withdrawals globally. However, not all of this water nourishes crops. In traditional systems, over 50% often returns to rivers or groundwater, unused by plants. This return flow, while reusable downstream, highlights inefficiencies in water use.

Monitoring water productivity in agriculture — how much crop is produced per unit of water — is essential for improving these efficiencies. Advancements in earth observation technology, particularly monitoring soil moisture using remote sensing, now make it possible to track critical data for sustainable agricultural practices and natural resource management.

Evapotranspiration, which encompasses both soil evaporation and plant transpiration, can be measured via satellites. Similarly, plant growth and health are accessible through this technology. By increasing crop biomass or reducing water usage, we can enhance water productivity. This progress is vital for ensuring sustainable water use in agriculture and securing food supplies for an ever-growing population.

Example of successful implementation

The application of remote sensing in soil moisture management has already proven its effectiveness through different cases. Let’s discuss some of them.

Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin

In Australia, the Murray-Darling Basin is a critical agricultural region where water scarcity is a persistent challenge. By utilizing satellite data to monitor soil moisture and evapotranspiration, farmers have been able to optimize irrigation schedules. This has resulted in a 20% increase in water use efficiency, reducing overall water consumption while maintaining crop yields. The benefits include enhanced water conservation and improved crop productivity, ensuring the region’s agricultural sustainability.

California’s Central Valley

In California’s Central Valley, satellite data has been used to monitor crop health and soil moisture. This information allows farmers to implement precision irrigation, targeting only the areas that need water. As a result, water usage has decreased by 30%, and crop yields have increased by 15%. The implementation of these technologies has led to significant water savings and improved agricultural output, demonstrating the power of satellite data in modern farming practices.

Primo Principio and EOSDA Crop Monitoring

Primo Principio, an Italy-based company, has made strides in improving vineyard management using the EOSDA Crop Monitoring platform. Grapes, a particularly demanding crop, require meticulous irrigation and disease prevention efforts. In Italy, where weather patterns are unpredictable, Primo Principio’s model has helped farmers receive timely alerts about water and disease stress in their fields, aiding in irrigation and crop treatment decisions.

However, the need for a more precise approach led Primo Principio to adopt EOSDA Crop Monitoring. This platform provides detailed soil moisture maps and other critical data, enabling early detection of plant stress and more accurate irrigation and treatment processes.

With EOSDA Crop Monitoring, Primo Principio has enhanced its model to deliver geo-specific information, pinpointing areas within fields experiencing issues such as pests or extreme weather. This precision is crucial for effective irrigation and disease prevention. The integration of Variable Rate Application (VRA) maps, which include vegetation indices like NDVI and NDMI, has further refined their approach, allowing for precise liquid spraying and treatment applications.

Since May 2023, Primo Principio has been using EOSDA Crop Monitoring, receiving positive feedback from their clients. Approximately 30 clients, managing fields ranging from 0.17 to 104 hectares, now benefit from the platform. Weekly or bi-weekly reports featuring multi-layered maps provide detailed insights into vegetation and moisture levels, helping farmers make informed decisions. This innovative approach has empowered farmers to apply treatments and irrigation more precisely, enhancing water productivity and sustainability in Italian vineyards.

Challenges and solutions

It is with satellite-based remote sensing that the efforts towards the study of peatlands have been revolutionized, providing a huge extent of detailed views over such complex ecosystems. Due to the wide coverage characteristic of satellite-based remote sensing, together with cost-effectiveness and seasonal and spatial variation capture, it is unrivaled for peatland mapping, vegetation monitoring, and estimation of carbon stocks.

However, challenges remain regarding the enhancement of in situ calibration and validation, local factor integration, and detailed in situ data. This demands that the right vegetation indices, spectral bands, and processing techniques are utilized to ensure effective crop monitoring.

There are, however, lingering problems in classifying accuracies, penetration into vegetation, and quantification below ground. Improvement in technology is required to integrate data from multiple sensors, with better algorithms, and validation on the ground with site-specific makes consideration.

In this regard, the upcoming hyperspectral satellite missions like EnMAP, PRISMA, and CHIME hold great promise for peatland monitoring. These datasets can enable species-level analysis, but precise measurement of key plant spectral properties is essential to unlock their full potential. 

WALES should follow example of Western Australia in attracting doctors and nurses, says a local MP

Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion Preseli, Ben Lake, has said that Wales should follow the lead of regions like Western Australia in attracting workers to fill skill shortages in public services through promotional campaigns.

He warned that rural depopulation in Wales could lead to a “collapse of public services” without government intervention to retain young people in rural areas and attract workers from other parts of the world.

Western Australia launched a campaign last year targeting workers in the UK and Ireland, enticing them with promises of higher salaries, a better quality of life, and lower living costs. WA government minister Paul Papalia declared in the promotion, “We are here to steal your workers by offering them a better life in one of the most beautiful places on the planet.”

Ben Lake MP highlighted the “many benefits of rural living” in Wales and urged both the Welsh and UK governments to do more to attract key workers to rural communities. He noted that Ceredigion recorded a 5.9% decrease in its population in the last census, while Pembrokeshire’s population remained stagnant. The constituency is experiencing the “real consequences of depopulation,” including a shortage of GPs, the absence of NHS dental services in much of the region, school closures, and the lack of banking facilities.

Rural Wales will face a “collapse of public services” unless the Welsh Government, together with the UK Government, which holds all powers relating to immigration in Wales, take action to help attract workers.

Speaking in Westminster this week, Ben Lake MP said: “I represent Ceredigion Preseli. At the last census, Ceredigion—the majority of my constituency—recorded a 5.9% decrease in its overall population, and the communities in Preseli or Pembrokeshire that I now represent saw their population flatline. This is a problem that we are very much living with today. What does it mean? In practice, it means that we are having very difficult discussions about, for example, the provision of public services and whether the school estate is sustainable for the future. We are talking about the lack of GPs and the fact that we do not have an NHS dentist any more in much of the constituency. There are three well-known banks in the UK that no longer have a single branch in the two counties that I represent. This is the real consequence of depopulation.

He continued: “This is something that the UK Government can help with, and it should be on their radar. When the Cabinet Office looks at the range of risks it must monitor as part of its remit—something that the Public Accounts Committee discussed in the previous Parliament—it should look at how the discrepancies in demographic trends across these islands might have an impact on key public services, because in certain areas of rural Wales we will, I am afraid, see a collapse of public services. That will have a knock-on impact on more urban areas, which are themselves struggling with different demographic pressures.

“This is an important debate, and I would ask the Home Office Minister to consider, as part of her important work in this new Parliament, the lessons to be drawn from experiences across the world. My hon. Friend the Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart, SNP) mentioned the experience of Quebec. As west Walians, we often turn on the radio to hear adverts from the Government of Western Australia trying to attract many of our young doctors and nurses to migrate to that part of the world. Are there incentives we could use to persuade more of our young people to stay or to attract those from other parts of the world? There are many benefits to rural living. Perhaps we could be more creative in grasping this problem by the scruff of the neck, because I fear we do not have much time left to deal with it.”

THE development phase of the new Integrated Natural Resources Scheme (INRS) is open for applications until 27 September.

The INRS will enable farmers and others to work together to improve our natural resources and deliver benefits to farm and rural businesses.

A webinar has been arranged by Farming Connect on 11 September to give farmers the chance to learn more about the scheme and ask questions.

Although the scheme is separate from the Sustainable Farming Scheme it will be used to inform the collaborative element of the scheme during this interim period.

This scheme forms part of a preparatory phase of activities which may lead to collaborative projects ready to participate in the Collaboration Layer of the Sustainable Farming Scheme when it is introduced.

The scheme will provide funding for implementing nature-based solutions at the appropriate scale, targeting action and interventions to enhance and sustainably manage our natural resources.

Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies, said: “The scheme has been developed to focus on collaborative action – enabling farmers and land managers to do something they do very well – which is working together to deliver innovative solutions. These projects will improve our natural resources in a way which delivers benefits to farm and rural businesses, rural communities, and wider societal benefits.

“We are committed to supporting farmers to produce food in a sustainable way, whilst taking action to respond to the climate emergency and to help reverse the decline in biodiversity.”

This could include projects which enhance our carbon-rich soils such as peatlands, creating and managing woodland, implementing natural flood risk management, enhancing access and public engagement, protecting landscape and historic features. Or, deliver actions to enhance priority and semi natural habitats, improving the connectivity, scale, adaptability, or diversity of semi natural habitats and our natural features, ensuring ecosystem resilience. Projects could also strengthen the resilience of Wales’ network of protected sites by working at a landscape scale to improve connectivity and condition.

Further information is available here www.gov.wales/integrated-natural-resources-scheme-rules-booklet-html