Area Monitoring — using Geotagged photo app to communicate with farmers
For area monitoring to benefit the society, it is essential to engage with all stakeholders. With farmers representing the driver of the agriculture, they have to be in the driving seat. Two-way communication is key!
Guest blog post contributed by NPA, Lithuania
The area monitoring approach relies primarily on the EO data, which have certain limitations. As an example, for small or cloudy parcels it might not be possible to get enough useful information from the satellite signal analysis.
Moreover, the machine learning methods will sometimes fail to provide conclusive results due to the nature of the measure one is trying to check, regardless of the parcel’s physical properties. Taking into account also the objective of the current CAP, where preventing non-compliance is preferred to penalising them, it is essential to include farmers in the process. Geotagged photos and other information shared via mobile application provide an important and convenient complementary data source.
In 2018 the NPA (Paying Agency of Lithuania) launched their own geotagged photo application named NMA Agro, both for IOS and Android mobile devices. The application is free, with no login requirements and enables sharing photos with precise coordinates and azimuth directly from the field and provides some additional functionalities such as measuring the distance and size of land features.
This solution helps farmers report on the activities performed, such as the cultivation of specific crops, implemented investment projects, or the problems related to fulfilling the commitments. The exchange of information does not only include NPA but was also extended to State Veterinary and State Plant Protection services. The NMA Agro application is therefore becoming an integral part of the CAP in Lithuania. In cases where the information through EO data or aerial imagery is not sufficient and additional evidence is required by the Paying Agency, farmers are encouraged to send geotagged photos in order to prove the activity or clarify the query. The incentive for the farmers to use the app will often remove the need for on-the-spot inspection.
The mobile application, powered by LT INSPIRE geoportal, also provides access to all the main LPIS (Land Parcel Identification System) auxiliary layers, for example, areas of soil erosion, wetlands, Natura 2000 protected areas, which helps to prevent prohibited activities in these areas.
Through the integration of the Sentinel Hub services the application also provides access to the latest Sentinel-2 true color imagery, vegetation index, and crop water stress index, updated every three to five days. These additional data allow farmers to monitor and assess the condition of the crops grown in their fields and, if needed, to carry out the necessary farm activities. Therefore, farmers can use the app for much more than just for taking pictures to report to the authorities — they can use it to get information about their crops, such that they would often pay for in various precision agriculture apps.
Due to the benefits for the farmers and ease of use, the application has been adopted by many. Moreover, it can be used by any Lithuanian citizen for reporting about unattended areas with overgrown trees and shrubs, uncultivated land, environmental irregularities, etc. Currently, there are more than 24000 active users of the app and growing.
In the CAP context, geotagged photos can be used in a wider range of situations than described above. They can also serve as an input for an update of the LPIS (Land Parcel Identification System), evidence elements not monitorable with satellite imagery (e.g. signs of soil erosion or unique landscape features) or provide ground truth for quality assessment or training of the machine learning processes.
