A small step for the farmer, one giant leap for agriculture
Using satellite data in agriculture and insurance will soon be the digital default
What can be made digital, will become digital at some point — even for sectors as innovation-averse as agriculture and insurance.
The use of satellite technology to detect flood- or drought-affected fields of smallholder farmers in southern India is a case in point. It connects one of the most advanced sectors, aerospace, with a digitally fairly backward yet substantially important one: agriculture. While the former is inherently driven by the human desire to extend their sphere of influence, the later is down to earth and most essential. On the fields of Thiruvarur in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu those two worlds met — it was the first geography in which farmer’s losses had been analysed with satellite data. Several hundred villagers received payouts by the local insurance companies thereafter.
The idea of making use of satellite information in agriculture is not new, but its practice is because so far rain and clouds have been in the way. The major growth driver for every crop has also been the major obstacle for every satellite. They simply could not see through it. The recent launches of several satellite constellations equipped with radar-sensors, some of them to use free of charge, has changed that. Furthermore, seeing things from above is not anymore just a matter of the sovereignty of the states controlling the fields below. Private companies, such as PlanetLabs shoot up satellites in the orbit too and drones are cheap and can be operated by almost anyone.
Using satellites in agriculture is still the exception — but it will become the norm soon.
