Satellites for Agriculture

We’ve collaborated with the Satellite Applications Catapult, the UK’s leading authority for satellite technology to produce an overview of the opportunities available to farmers and growers from the space sector.

The main focus of this guide is Earth observation, but satellite communications and navigation systems are also covered.

Satellites can assist growers with:

• Detecting and controlling pests and disease
• Understanding water and nutrient status
• Planning crop nutrition programmes
• Informing in-season irrigation
• Predicting yields
• Estimating harvest timing

Rapid developments in this area are enabling increased connectivity and observational capability; coupling these developments with ‘smarter’ computing, data infrastructures and analytics is increasing the possibilities for the use of satellite technologies for farmers and growers. These new opportunities for products, services and decision support also create challenges for the land-based sector to ensure that technological advances can be effectively harnessed to deliver their potential.