PrecisionAg101 Post #3 : These posts are meant to make farmers aware of the basics of precision agriculture and how to interpret various satellite data provided by us.
The field image attached below is of the farmer Tafuma Fundira (Masvingo, Zimbabwe), (Field Area: 2 Hectares). The image displayed on the map is ETCI (Enhanced True Color Image) on the left and VARI (Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index) image on the right. ETCI stands for Enhanced True Color Image. It is basically a TCI image processed by our own systems to enhance the land features which were not so explicitly visible in the raw TCI Image. VARI stands for Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index. VARI is minimally resistant to atmospheric effects, allowing vegetation to be estimated in a wide variety of environment. Hence, it is ideally recommended to be used for farm level decision making if TCI and ETCI images show visible atmospheric distortion such as mild clouds or haze above the field. The colors used to quantify this information is very easy to interpret.
Dark Green/ Green: Crop is very healthy
Yellow: Crop needs attention
Red: Barren land
In the posted image, as we can see, the ETCI image seems to be distorted due to haze and clouds. In such cases vegetation indices like NDVI will not give correct observations. Thus, VARI is used in such cases. As we can see through the VARI image, a majority of the field is growing pretty well, with some barren regions shown in red. To cross-verify these results farmers can simply open GPS on their smartphones and can navigate through the field using this image.
By using satellite data provided by us, farmers can:
1. Reduce Chemical/Fertilizer consumption by applying them only in the locations where crop health is not good.
2. Reduce Labour costs by directing the labours only in those field areas where crop health is critical.
3. Reduce irrigation water wastage by applying proper irrigation only in those locations where plant water stress is low.
4. Increase overall yield.
The system is available for use on android, iOS as well as web.
Happy Farming!
#farming #organicfarming #crops #urbanfarming #vari #crophealth #fieldscouting #remotesensing