By Naomi Parris
THE increased demand globally for food and growing threats posed by climate change have put traditional farming practices under pressure.

Satellite technology, however, brings to the agriculture sector a new frontier of practices based on data. In Guyana, Latitude Geospatial – a local technology-driven, Geographic Information System (GIS), and spatial data Provider Company leverages this innovative technology to support food production here.

The Company’s director, Dr. Haimwant Persaud in a recent interview with the Sunday Chronicle said farming and agriculture as a whole could be transformed by satellite technology.

SO HOW DOES IT WORK?
Dr. Persaud explained this particular technology analyses satellite images and remote sensing data to monitor crop health and growth. Using data from satellites insights into soil moisture levels and even weather patterns can accessed. This can also tell farmers how much fertiliser or how much water their crops may need.

“Every day you have about 600 satellites passing over here, there are a lot of them that are periptery and there a lot of them than you can get data from. Most of them are optical which you will see images and pulses going to the ground and out of that, you can detect crop health, you can tell the moisture in the soil and at the same time, you can pull the data from these weather satellites and leverage it” he explained.

This precession-based method of agriculture helps farmers make strategic decisions on when and where to plant their crops for better yields. It also helps farmers to adapt to the changing climate.
“Agriculture is location-based, that is the first thing about agriculture, where the farmers are planting it’s a location and there is data about that location, the activity about planting alone is just one component of agriculture, there are so many others that go into the logistics and understanding.”

Persaud pointed out that the agriculture sector can grow more efficiently and productively with the adoption of technologies and using satellite technology provides numerous opportunities to meet modern agriculture needs.

Simply explained, Persaud said: “Understanding the environment first enables you to make the right decision and that is where location comes in so if I know your plot of land and I could tell you the soil component, the rain that is coming, the frequency of rain that is coming, the moisture in that soil. It could enable you to make proper decisions in real time for you to bring down your cost of operations.”

HOW CAN FARMERS ACCESS THIS TECHNOLOGY?
In Guyana, Latitude Geospatial has developed a mobile app to help farmers monitor their farms.
The satellite-based application Sat2farm Dr. Persaud shared helps farmers manage their farms, monitor health, and irrigation needs and even predict weather forecasts.

This can see farmers cutting their production costs while improving productivity.
“From the satellite, we can generate as per request, so if a farmer wants to generate a soil report every day. We can generate a soil report every day.”

With this application and the analyses provided, a farmer can access information on crop diseases, signs of stress, and nutrient deficiencies in yields. This can see the farmers taking timely interventions to reduce crop losses.

Additionally, farmers can use data gathered to apply tailored farming methods. Such as adjusting drainage and irrigation needs and with real-time weather forecasts farmers can prepare for weather conditions beforehand.
Pioneering a new era of agriculture production Latitude Geospatial offers state-of-the-art GIS mapping, satellite imager, digital evaluation models (DEMs), Vessel Monitoring Systems, UAV, drone services, and spatial data analytics and satellite-based agriculture crop monitoring.