Drones have been helping farmers map their land, identify pest invasions and detect crop stress for several years. Now, the Netherlands is taking aerial agricultural data to a new level — hundreds of miles above the Earth.
The Dutch government is spending €1.4 million ($1.5 million) on satellite data to “do its bit to solve the global food crisis.”
Remote sensing from observation satellites can catalogue soil quality, humidity, temperature and atmospheric conditions in order to analyze changes in crops and water quality.
The Netherlands intends to open the data for companies and researchers at satellietdataportaal.nl.
The world needs to produce 50 percent more food by 2050 to keep pace with global population growth.
This post originally appeared in ImpactAlpha’s daily newsletter. Get The Brief.
Photo credit: Crop Copter
