![]() ![]() “These data have opened up the possibility of enhanced decision making in the agriculture sector,” Davidson says. The inventory is also being used by provinces, private sector and academia to determine how crop agriculture is affecting the surrounding environment including lake water quality and honeybee populations. It is also critical for other applications, such as warning growers of possible threats such as crop diseases. The Annual Space-Based Crop Inventory, a product of AAFC research, annually maps the crop type of every field in Canada and is used to detect trends in crop planting practices. There are also tools and applications for analysing these data so that decision makers can make informed agricultural management decisions. ![]() Davidson’s team produces are data sets, maps and forecasting tools that can be accessed online through various AAFC web portals. With other AAFC research scientists, they also manage international collaborations and together, AAFC is acknowledged as global experts in optical as well as SAR satellite technology. “Satellites provide imagery but it is the scientists on the ground who turn it into something useful,” says Davidson. They are small, but mighty and the amount of data they manage is impressive. These data are correlated with data from aircrafts, drones, and ground collection networks to produce highly accurate measurements of crops and conditions, with the ability to detect changes quickly.ĭavidson underlines that satellites provide the kind of timely, reliable and scientifically validated information that is necessary to help scientists, farmers, producer groups as well as policy-makers make good evidence-based decisions to manage their operations while protecting our natural resources.ĪAFC’s Earth Observation Operations is based at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre. “Satellites can cover way more ground at a much faster pace than humans, drones or aircraft, and the data can be used to measure things such as crop type, vegetation cover and productivity and surface soil moisture conditions,” he says. Andrew Davidson, manager of Earth Observation Operations at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), explains that there is no better way to obtain national-scale information on the state and trends of agriculture and resource use than from space. When linked together, they orbit the earth, providing more frequent coverage and more advanced imaging of our agricultural resources.ĭr. The RADARSAT-Constellation is a series of three SAR satellites. Using Satellite Technology for Agriculture Soon, they were using satellite data steams to run crop models and evaluate the ability of fields to drain.įast forward to June 2019 when the CSA launched it’s third generation of SAR satellites, the RADARSAT-Constellation, and agriculture is now one of the primary clients and end-users. But scientists at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) saw data streams from earth-orbiting satellites as an opportunity to look at agriculture from a stellar new vantage point. It drew the attention of the concerned ministers to come up with a new and robust policy towards this end.When the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) launched its first Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite, RADARSAT-1, in 1995, they weren’t thinking about agriculture. IPAK urged the concerned, including the two departments, to work towards improving the productivity of the state. The CSO also held the two departments responsible for the rise in poppy and marijuana cultivation in the hills of the state. IPAK further lashed out at the Agriculture Department and Horticulture Department, blaming them for working only on tables and not going to the field where the actual problem lies. ![]() The government should protect the socio-economic status of the state, it asserted. The CSO also mooted that the ILP System which is without proper guidelines at present would not be able to withstand the consequences. In a release on Monday, IPAK also urged the concerned departments to allow supply of fertilizer such as Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, organic bio fertilizers, etc to the farmers without any restrictions.Ĭontending that if farming activities are continued to be restricted the state will be in dire straits, IPAK also stressed that it will affect the way of life of the indigenous peoples of the state.
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