Agriculture
A sustainable agriculture industry requires an optimum land and production management. Agriculture production systems are subject to different pressures including:
- Increased world population;
- Diminishing arable lands due to overpopulation and related urbanization. In fact, only 1.6 billions of the world’s 13.5 billion hectares of land surface area are currently in cropland and an estimated 2 billion are considered potentially suitable for rainfed crop production [FAO publications];
- Extreme weather effect such as drought and flood;
- Market forces - The recent growing demand for agricultural commodities, especially for the production of bio-fuels to mitigate climatic changes, is having significant repercussions on agricultural markets, and concerns are mounting over their negative impact on the food security of millions of people across the world. The same demand is creating a demand for expansion of cultivated areas.
Different technological advances helped mitigate some of these pressures for increased production. Mechanization introduced in the early 1900's helped increase production by farming over large lands with limited man-power. Soil amendment with fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide and the development of higher performing seeds under extreme weather conditions as a result of genetic manipulation, also helped achieve higher nutritional quality products and increase and/or maintain production over the same land year after year.
Remote sensing technologies with their spectral, spatial and temporal characteristics can help develop product lines, as a map form, to support management strategies at a global or local level. GSP developed products tailored to the agriculture commodity market to (1) map the crop of interest worldwide or any region, (2) determine the total acreage of the planted crop before maturity occurs and, (3) monitor the crop condition to help determine final yield. GSP also offers product lines for precision agriculture to support management strategies at the field level and optimize the use of inputs such as water, fertilizers and other chemicals.
Agriculture Product Lines
. Vegetation Vigor
. Corn & Soybean Survey
. Crop Canopy Moisture
. Grapevine Survey
. Pasture & Rangeland Management
. Pre-season Field Management Map
. Tree Crop Management
. Vegetation Treatment Monitoring
. Vineyard Management
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