BPN 1194 One click to inspect the crop yield

Agro business is not my field. But with some forebears from the rural area, I have kept an interest of the computerisation of the agro business. No longer crops are transported by horse and carriage nor does one work with a skythe, but now the computer is at center stage. Last week was a historical moment in crop yield information gathering. Potato business intelligence is now just one click away from the farmer’s desktop and wheat is already in a pilot for interested people.

Croplook.com is now a new way of actual and accurate data gathering. For every professional in the potato industry who wants to make decisions on reliable figures with a high level of timely data.

Croplook's data gathering starts with satellites that routinely scan radiation data from the earth's surface. This remote sensing data is processed through a unique data model called SEBAL. This model provides absolute yield numbers in killogram per hectare. Without the need of any ground support. The SEBAL model has been developed at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, by Prof Dr Wim Bastiaanssen. SEBAL stands for Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land and is based on the actual intake of CO² and the evaporation H²O of plants. The SEBAL model is accurate per pixel with resolutions down to 10x10 meters. SEBAL is rapidly gaining worldwide recognition through its practical application in a variety of projects, of which the latest is the detailed and accurate measurement of crops in the field. Used by farmers to gain more productivity of a large number of crops. SEBAL is the only model in the world, which provides directly useful quantitative data such as kilograms per hectare or liters per square meter. The model is validated in scientific institutes, through technology assessments and has proven itself in agricultural practice.

Having paid and gained access to the service, a parcel overview is generated and summary data of all the selected parcels is available and ready for inspection n detail. A survey and use of the actual crop information available such as the number of hectares planted crop; yield in kg/ha; dry matter (for potatoes); total biomass production in kg/ha of all vegetation in the parcel. The information is updated every week.

On the new portal croplook.com actuel crop information can easily be bought per parcel. A parcel represents an area of 25 x 25 kilometers and can be choosen freely by clicking the parcels on the map of Europe, buy them and one gets direct acces to the actual crop growth information during the whole growth season of the crop. Even when one buys a parcel after the growth season historical data will be kept available.

Blog Posting Number: 1194

Tags: agriculture