OBSERVER; Farming into the future— Supporting food security and Europe’s potato industry from space
A dynamic potato industry
The EU is the second largest producer of potatoes globally with output rounding up to more than 53 million tonnes harvested each year. Additionally, the EU takes first place when it comes to the quantity of potatoes consumed per capita. In one year, every European consumes on average almost 90 kg of potatoes. Such dietary habits contribute positively to the size of the potato market. Estimated to be worth around EUR 12 billion, potato farming represented 3.1% of the total value of EU agricultural output.
Today, the potato industry is facing different challenges which are putting farmers to the test. First and foremost, climate change impacts weather patterns which in turn leads to significant crop losses and ultimately threatens the long-term sustainability of the potato industry. Moreover, farmers must protect their crops against devastating diseases, which are becoming a growing challenge with the usage reduction of chemical products in farming. Finally, given that potatoes are a staple and an affordable food, demand is expected to grow in the coming decades. Now more than ever agriculture needs to get smart and digital to ensure a food-secure world.
What are the challenges faced by the potato industry?
The IPCC report of 2021 states that the negative effects of climate change will intensify in the 21st century impacting nature, ecosystems and human activities. The climate change effects are already visible, with more and more frequent heatwaves, record-breaking temperatures and droughts, as experienced in Europe during past summer for example. These phenomena threaten European farming activities, and potato farming in particular. Potatoes are sensitive to sudden temperature changes and are strongly affected by both a lack and an excess of water. They are therefore significantly affected by the manifestations of climate change, such as rising temperatures, which cause increased evaporation and deplete the soil of water, but also to the alternation of more intense wet periods and droughts. This even causes a “second growth” problem where the growth of the potatoes is slowed and then boosted, which leads to secondary tubers growing inside the main one, causing the potatoes to be smaller. But climate change is not the only challenge for the potato industry. Diseases, especially potato blight fungus which appears with warm wet weather, can wipe out the crop within a few days of infection.
Copernicus satellites provide information to safeguard potato farming
As a cornerstone of the EU’s effort to monitor the Earth, Copernicus is instrumental in the transition to “smarter” agriculture. The agrifood industry can rely on the support of Copernicus when it comes to addressing these challenges. The Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites dedicated to collecting high-resolution imagery for land services (i.e., vegetation, soil, water cover, inland waterways, etc.) help mitigate many of the challenges faced by the industry such as disease monitoring and the health of soils. Compared to traditional crop monitoring techniques, which are time- and resource-intensive, data provided by the Sentinel satellites gives farmers a timely and up-to-date overview of the physical and geographical parameters about their fields and crops, which helps them make informed decisions. Thanks to the Sentinel data provided by Copernicus and accessible on a full, free and open basis, farmers are able to make better informed decisions which will improve the efficiency of their practices and increase their yields.
By exploiting the full potential of the high-quality data delivered by the Copernicus Sentinel satellites as well as the free and open data policy of Copernicus, service providers and developers have successfully developed various products and services with the aim of supporting the potato producers with monitoring their fields. Some examples of such products are described in the following sections.
Service providers benefiting from Copernicus
VITO Remote Sensing
VITO Remote Sensing offers Earth Observation expertise, data and services, and tailor-made image processing solutions for a wide range of applications including agriculture, infrastructure, vegetation, water and coast, climate, security, and natural capital accounting. Their varied portfolio of products and services provides useful insight to both public and private organisations.
Watch iT grow
One of the many agricultural monitoring services provided by VITO Remote Sensing is WatchITgrow (WIG). WIG is a geo-information platform that was originally developed for the Belgian potato sector with the objective of estimating and increasing potato yields in a sustainable way. The aim of the platform is to gather satellite data to combine with external models to provide farmers with information on the state of the crop (i.e., growth stage, health status, yields prediction) as influenced by crop species/variety and agro-ecological conditions such as soil type, nutrients, and local weather.
Free synoptic imagery captured by the multispectral optical sensors of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite are used to provide a detailed overview of the crops and precisely map the vegetation over time to determine their maturity level. The satellite data provided helps the farmers quickly react to the status of their crops. In other words, such data helps farmers estimate harvest dates, improve yields, and reduce production and quality losses.
Furthermore, VITO has developed an image processing technology called CropSar. This technology tackles one of the greatest challenges associated to crop monitoring using satellite imagery: cloud cover. By combining radar and optical data from Sentinel-1 and -2 satellites, VITO can successfully retrieve crop data even during cloudy days. As a result, crop monitoring and forecasting of the harvest can be considerably improved.
GEO4A
GEO4A provides customers in the agricultural sector with services focusing on the monitoring of potato crops and the analysis of potato fields, varieties, and regions. By combining satellite, field, and meteorological data, GEO4A can provide agricultural stakeholders with valuable information that allows them to get the best possible return from their fields, whilst contributing to their sustainability.
Harvic
In order to provide easy and fast access to potato crop insights within the Benelux area, GEO4A has developed a fully automated satellite-based crop monitoring solution called HARVIC. By combining satellite and innovative in-situ data, this platform provides users with critical information: ranging from field and parcel measurements to near real-time crop monitoring and crop analytics to forecast yield and quality. HARVIC enables actors throughout the potato value chain to better manage their raw material productivity, as well as to optimise business processes and operations.
The cornerstone of HARVIC is the robust WOFOST (World Food Studies) model developed at Wageningen University. This model describes crop growth and all underlying processes linked to it, such as photosynthesis, respiration, water uptake, etc. Using this model, it is possible to simulate crop growth with a daily temporal resolution. Parameters which influence growth are used as input, and the model delivers as output all key crop condition parameters. The model is complemented with EO data, meteorological data, and real-time individual field and agrological data. This raw input data is then translated into HARVIC Indicator Services using analytics and statistical modelling. Finally, a web-based platform enables users to track and analyse yield, projections, and other quality indicators in the fields through time and space. The crucial aspect of this model is that it benefits the entire value chain. Not only can farmers and companies involved in the processing of potatoes can leverage its monitoring and forecasting features to optimise their activities, but also financial players engaged in the trading of futures and other derivatives dependent on the potato market can benefit from the forecasting capabilities of HARVIC.
One of the key sources of EO data used by HARVIC is the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS). CLMS data is used during the whole growing season, from the day of planting until harvesting. For example, all currently available CLMS high-resolution layers are used as part of the workflow to identify potato fields. For product validation, the in-situ point reference data from the Land Use and Land Cover Area Survey (LUCAS) are used. In addition, Copernicus Sentinel satellite data helps with digital crop condition assessments. The Sentinel data calibrate the potato-specific vegetation index data and detect weather-induced growing anomalies. Lastly, Sentinel data supports the subsequent derivation of specific phenological parameters during the potato growth cycle.
Exploring Copernicus potential for the monitoring of crop nitrogen status
STARGATE Project
Copernicus observations can help during the fertilisation stage as well. Today crop fertilisation is performed by using nitrogen-based fertilisers. The fertilisation process can be optimised by splitting the nitrogen supply into two different doses. The first one is applied at planting and, if required, a second one is applied during the vegetation development. The latter is only applied if it is determined that the crop is nitrogen deficient. This is where the data obtained through Copernicus Sentinel-2 comes into play, as it can allow farmers to determine the index of nitrogen nutrition (INN) and hence decide if and when it is necessary to apply a nitrogen supplement.
The STARGATE project leveraged the accuracy of Copernicus Sentinel-2 data together with meteorological data in order to assess the biomass of the crop (tonnes of dry matter per hectare), the nitrogen content (% nitrogen in plants), the nitrogen absorbed (kg of nitrogen per hectare absorbed by plants) and finally determine the index of nitrogen nutrition (INN).
The project determined that Copernicus data can be exploited to provide reliable recommendations for the use of nitrogen fertilizer for potato crops.
Copernicus is instrumental in providing high-quality, free and open information, aiding producers to transform their crop management into a more digital, environmental-friendly, high-yield crop monitoring process. Its use is already proven with several companies and will become even more important in the future to ensure the continued sustainability of the potato sector.