A new role for satellites in the production of food

Scientists have developed in Israel in recent times a new way to assist farmers in achieving optimal use of the land.
Scientists used images captured by satellite "Terra" to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to help farmers to identify any valuable small change climatic conditions in order to increase the production of their crops, a method is likely to contribute to the increased quantities of food around the world.
The new method does not rely on the analysis of weather and geographical details in the large tracts of land, but to divide the space into smaller climatic zones in order to guide the farmers to the best way to exploit each field separately.
Yuri says Diane researcher who specializes in climate science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the new approach to the farmer determines the best time to plant seeds of Pesticides and the type of crop for planting in each kilometer of land.
Since the new method was published in the Journal of the American Society for climate science works in September, Diane and fellow researcher Itamar for Lewinsky to map the interface to the surface of the earth farmers can be used in all the continents.
Said Diane, "reached that it is important to know the farmers local climate conditions in certain fields they cultivate. Therefore, we determined that the existing sites currently to measure temperature, for example, is not enough at all to get this type of information. Therefore we decided to use the data NASA (Space Administration Aviation and the U.S.) collected through satellites to get some information about the Earth's temperature. "
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that the production of food in the world needs to increase by 70 percent by 2050 to meet demand.
The organization says that crops are vulnerable to any change in the elements of the environment such as pests and pathogens, and weeds that can lead to the loss of more than 40 percent of the global food supply.
Diane says that the local climatic conditions may loggerheads between the field and another adjacent to it, which needs special attention no matter how each individual to achieve maximum production.According to Diane and Lewinsky that their goal is to increase food supplies in the world.
Said Diane, "Our vision is to be able to provide more food for the whole world. Way to do this is to provide access to the fullest possible information on any item that could affect agriculture. Our opinion, the local weather is an important element as well as the production of many plants need a certain amount of heat .. or the use of pesticides at specific times. "
According to the researcher, Department of Aldjaravea Lewinsky and the environment at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv that the new method using scanning thermal images provided by NASA to analyze the climatic conditions in every piece of land on a small scale.
"What we understand about the way nature works Ndjemah in the list of information .. We give the results to farmers."
He described the Israeli farms veteran Gideon Yisrael new discovery that dream turned into reality.
"It would be a dream come true. I work in agriculture for 40 years long experience of the Crown. This will allow information to farmers to enable them to take appropriate decisions is hoped to achieve good results in agriculture."
He described Prof. Arnon Karneli director of the Laboratory of remote sensing at the Institute of Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the new method as a "pioneer."
"The study of the Lewinsky and Diane pioneering step to achieve accuracy in the field of agriculture. Are used heat the earth's surface and signals thermal set out in the satellite images to develop new thinking about phenomena such as water pressure in the soil and drought in the same field. We will use this method in the future when it picks up satellite images more pronounced for the space and heat.
And used the new method to predict the place and time specified for the type of injury agricultural area of ​​pests cause billions of dollars in losses for agricultural production in the world annually. This information is provided and more effective use of pesticides.
Once researchers find a partner to help them in the development of Aktsafhma can in two years to draw a map graphic to Stkh the ground to help the farmers in all parts of the world.


Source: Reuters