ESA: Sentinel-1offers new ways of monitoring crops

A simulated Sentinel-1 image of Indian Head in Canada, one the three major sites investigated intensively during the AgriSAR 2009 campaign.

The various colours reflect the radar brightness of each field at different times.

Fields growing the same crops generally display the same colour radar data.

These data can therefore be used for crop classification.

Credits: ESA/MDA

Sentinel-1
Sustainable food production remains a pressing challenge, so scientists have been assessing the potential of the future Sentinel-1 mission to deliver new methods of monitoring crops grown around the world from space.

Sentinel-1, expected to be launched in 2013, is one of the five missions that ESA is developing for Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme.

While the design of the Sentinel-1 mission is primarily based on marine applications such as ship detection and sea-ice mapping, there is increasing interest in using it for land applications.

To this end, ESA carried out the major international AgriSAR field campaign in 2009 as part of the mission's preparatory activities. 

Fruiting Bodies: Dictyostelium discoideum

The fruiting bodies produced by the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum as part of its reproductive cycle are pictured. Scientists have learned that some of the single-celled organisms display a primitive form of agriculture.

Instead of consuming all the bacteria at a particular site, they save some to 'seed' at other locations where food is scarce.

The amoeba species lives in slime moulds in the soil, where they exhibit an unusual form of social reproduction.

Dictyostelium chooses social over sexual reproduction whenever it runs out of food.

Argentine soya boom a blow to corn growers

Argentine soya boom a blow to corn growers

Argentina's record crops of soybean have caused dismay among corn and sunflower growers who see the government's emphasis on lucrative soybean exports as a potential blow to their agricultural crops, essential to food security.

Last year Argentina earned about $24 billion from soybean exports, which are now seen by many growers as a good money spinner when compared with conventional crops such as corn.

The farmers' protests are having little effect on soybean enthusiasts, who were drawn to this year's forecasts of a record bumper crop likely to exceed 50 million tons -- 5 million tons more than last year. The soybean is now commonly called "green gold" -- a reference to its high earning potential.

The Rosario Chamber of Commerce said the soybean crop yield was likely to reach the record level despite a chronic drought and disincentives such as unpopular government export taxes.