As technology advances, so too does the opportunities for farmers and the agriculture space to leverage data to make decisions about water, fertilizer, and harvest. Now, a new app aims to provide insight into crop health, weather forecasts, soil conditions, and climate patterns.
Researchers at Virginia Tech have built a new tool that leverages Google Earth Engine and open-access geospatial databases to bridge the gap between agricultural research and practical decision-making. The app supports more than 45 crop types and can be applied to open-field farming systems worldwide. It pulls data from trusted sources that is updated regularly.
Here is how this can help in agriculture:
- Draw field boundaries, select parameters, use satellite imagery, and vegetation index.
- Access 16 days of hourly forecasts to make informed decisions.
- Minimize high cost and complexity of tools.
Looking to the future, enhancements could include integration with on-farm equipment and drone data processing. Certainly, this is also only one example. We can expect to see many more easy-to-use, accessible tools for the ag space in the days ahead.