scholarly journals Multi-Spatial Resolution Satellite and sUAS Imagery for Precision Agriculture on Smallholder Farms in Malawi

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brad G. Peter ◽  
Joseph P. Messina ◽  
Jon W. Carroll ◽  
Junjun Zhi ◽  
Vimbayi Chimonyo ◽  
...  

A collection of spectral indices, derived from a range of remote sensing imagery spatial resolutions, are compared to on-farm measurements of maize chlorophyll content and yield at two trial farms in central Malawi to evaluate what spatial resolutions are most effective for relating multispectral images with crop status. Single and multiple linear regressions were tested for spatial resolutions ranging from 7 cm to 20 m using a small unmanned aerial system (<small>sUAS</small>) and satellite imagery from Planet, <small>SPOT</small> 6, Pléiades, and Sentinel-2. Results suggest that imagery with spatial resolutions nearer the maize plant scale (i.e., 14–27 cm) are most effective for relating spectral signals with crop health on smallholder farms in Malawi. Consistent with other studies, green-band indices were more strongly correlated with maize chlorophyll content and yield than conventional red-band indices, and multivariable models often outperformed single variable models.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4314
Author(s):  
Mahlatse Kganyago ◽  
Paidamwoyo Mhangara ◽  
Clement Adjorlolo

Global food security is critical to eliminating hunger and malnutrition. In the changing climate, farmers in developing countries must adopt technologies and farming practices such as precision agriculture (PA). PA-based approaches enable farmers to cope with frequent and intensified droughts and heatwaves, optimising yields, increasing efficiencies, and reducing operational costs. Biophysical parameters such as Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Chlorophyll Content (LCab), and Canopy Chlorophyll Content (CCC) are essential for characterising field-level spatial variability and thus are necessary for enabling variable rate application technologies, precision irrigation, and crop monitoring. Moreover, robust machine learning algorithms offer prospects for improving the estimation of biophysical parameters due to their capability to deal with non-linear data, small samples, and noisy variables. This study compared the predictive performance of sparse Partial Least Squares (sPLS), Random Forest (RF), and Gradient Boosting Machines (GBM) for estimating LAI, LCab, and CCC with Sentinel-2 imagery in Bothaville, South Africa and identified, using variable importance measures, the most influential bands for estimating crop biophysical parameters. The results showed that RF was superior in estimating all three biophysical parameters, followed by GBM which was better in estimating LAI and CCC, but not LCab, where sPLS was relatively better. Since all biophysical parameters could be achieved with RF, it can be considered a good contender for operationalisation. Overall, the findings in this study are significant for future biophysical product development using RF to reduce reliance on many algorithms for specific parameters, thus facilitating the rapid extraction of actionable information to support PA and crop monitoring activities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4728
Author(s):  
Zinhle Mashaba-Munghemezulu ◽  
George Johannes Chirima ◽  
Cilence Munghemezulu

Rural communities rely on smallholder maize farms for subsistence agriculture, the main driver of local economic activity and food security. However, their planted area estimates are unknown in most developing countries. This study explores the use of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data to map smallholder maize farms. The random forest (RF), support vector (SVM) machine learning algorithms and model stacking (ST) were applied. Results show that the classification of combined Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data improved the RF, SVM and ST algorithms by 24.2%, 8.7%, and 9.1%, respectively, compared to the classification of Sentinel-1 data individually. Similarities in the estimated areas (7001.35 ± 1.2 ha for RF, 7926.03 ± 0.7 ha for SVM and 7099.59 ± 0.8 ha for ST) show that machine learning can estimate smallholder maize areas with high accuracies. The study concludes that the single-date Sentinel-1 data were insufficient to map smallholder maize farms. However, single-date Sentinel-1 combined with Sentinel-2 data were sufficient in mapping smallholder farms. These results can be used to support the generation and validation of national crop statistics, thus contributing to food security.


Agronomy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 846
Author(s):  
Mbulisi Sibanda ◽  
Onisimo Mutanga ◽  
Timothy Dube ◽  
John Odindi ◽  
Paramu L. Mafongoya

Considering the high maize yield loses caused by incidences of disease, as well as incomprehensive monitoring initiatives in crop farming, there is a need for spatially explicit, cost-effective, and consistent approaches for monitoring, as well as for forecasting, food-crop diseases, such as maize Gray Leaf Spot. Such approaches are valuable in reducing the associated economic losses while fostering food security. In this study, we sought to investigate the utility of the forthcoming HyspIRI sensor in detecting disease progression of Maize Gray Leaf Spot infestation in relation to the Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat 8 OLI spectral configurations simulated using proximally sensed data. Healthy, intermediate, and severe categories of maize crop infections by the Gray Leaf Spot disease were discriminated based on partial least squares–discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) algorithm. Comparatively, the results show that the HyspIRI’s simulated spectral settings slightly performed better than those of Sentinel-2 MSI, VENµS, and Landsat 8 OLI sensor. HyspIRI exhibited an overall accuracy of 0.98 compared to 0.95, 0.93, and 0.89, which were exhibited by Sentinel-2 MSI, VENµS, and Landsat 8 OLI sensor sensors, respectively. Furthermore, the results showed that the visible section, red-edge, and NIR covered by all the four sensors were the most influential spectral regions for discriminating different Maize Gray Leaf Spot infections. These findings underscore the potential value of the upcoming hyperspectral HyspIRI sensor in precision agriculture and forecasting of crop-disease epidemics, which are necessary to ensure food security.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 956
Author(s):  
Florian Mouret ◽  
Mohanad Albughdadi ◽  
Sylvie Duthoit ◽  
Denis Kouamé ◽  
Guillaume Rieu ◽  
...  

This paper studies the detection of anomalous crop development at the parcel-level based on an unsupervised outlier detection technique. The experimental validation is conducted on rapeseed and wheat parcels located in Beauce (France). The proposed methodology consists of four sequential steps: (1) preprocessing of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and multispectral images acquired using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites, (2) extraction of SAR and multispectral pixel-level features, (3) computation of parcel-level features using zonal statistics and (4) outlier detection. The different types of anomalies that can affect the studied crops are analyzed and described. The different factors that can influence the outlier detection results are investigated with a particular attention devoted to the synergy between Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. Overall, the best performance is obtained when using jointly a selection of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 features with the isolation forest algorithm. The selected features are co-polarized (VV) and cross-polarized (VH) backscattering coefficients for Sentinel-1 and five Vegetation Indexes for Sentinel-2 (among us, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and two variants of the Normalized Difference Water). When using these features with an outlier ratio of 10%, the percentage of detected true positives (i.e., crop anomalies) is equal to 94.1% for rapeseed parcels and 95.5% for wheat parcels.


1996 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pala ◽  
A. Matar ◽  
A. Mazid

SUMMARYA series of researcher-managed wheat fertilizer trials was conducted on representative farmers' fields across northwest Syria between 1986 and 1990. Wheat grain and straw yields were strongly correlated with seasonal (October-May) rainfall, almost irrespective of soil fertility, crop sequence or fertilizer rate, with a highly significant response to nitrogen fertilizer which increased with increasing rainfall and decreasing initial soil mineral-nitrogen values. These results were summarized in regression equations which express yield in terms of fertilizer rates, seasonal rainfall and their interactions. The equations with applied nitrogen and seasonal rainfall were the most appropriate for determining fertilizer needs. Economic analysis indicated that all fertilizer treatment rates were profitable under existing price conditions and that fertilizer use would still be beneficial for a nitrogen price up to three times higher than that of the price of grain (weight for weight) with a seasonal rainfall of 250 mm, and up to six times higher with a seasonal rainfall of 450 mm.


Author(s):  
M. Sibanda ◽  
O. Mutanga ◽  
T. Dube ◽  
J. Odindi ◽  
P. L. Mafongoya

Abstract. Considering the high maize yield loses that are caused by diseases incidences as well as incomprehensive monitoring initiatives in the crop farming sector of agriculture, there is a need to come up with spatially explicit, cheap, fast and consistent approaches for monitoring as well as forecasting food crop diseases, such as maize gray leaf spot. This study, therefore, we sought to investigate the usability, strength and practicality of the forthcoming HyspIRI in detecting disease progression of Maize Gray leafy spot infections in relation to the Sentinel-2 MSI, Landsat 8 OLI spectral configurations. Maize Gray leafy spot disease progression that were discriminated based on partial least squares –discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) algorithm were (i) healthy, (ii) intermediate and (ii) severely infected maize crops. Comparatively, the results show that the HyspIRI’s simulated spectral settings slightly performed better than those of Sentinel-2 MSI, VENμS and Landsat 8 OLI sensor. HyspIRI exhibited an overall accuracy of 0.98 compared to 0.95, 0.93 and 0.89 exhibited by Sentinel-2 MSI, VENμS and Landsat 8 OLI sensor sensors, respectively. Further, the results showed that the visible section the red-edge and NIR covered by all the four sensors were the most influential spectral regions for discriminating different Maize Gray leafy spot infections. These findings underscore the added value and potential scientific breakthroughs likely to be brought about by the upcoming hyperspectral HyspIRI sensor in precision agriculture and forecasting of crop disease epidemics to ensure food security.


10.29007/hbs2 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Valdiviezo-Navarro ◽  
Adan Salazar-Garibay ◽  
Karla Juliana Rodríguez-Robayo ◽  
Lilián Juárez ◽  
María Elena Méndez-López ◽  
...  

Maya milpa is one of the most important agrifood systems in Mesoamerica, not only because its ancient origin but also due to lead an increase in landscape diversity and to be a relevant source of families food security and food sovereignty. Nowadays, satellite remote sensing data, as the multispectral images of Sentinel-2 platforms, permit us the monitor- ing of different kinds of structures such as water bodies, urban areas, and particularly agricultural fields. Through its multispectral signatures, mono-crop fields or homogeneous vegetation zones like corn fields, barley fields, or other ones, have been successfully detected by using classification techniques with multispectral images. However, Maya milpa is a complex field which is conformed by different kinds of vegetables species and fragments of natural vegetation that in conjunction cannot be considered as a mono-crop field. In this work, we show some preliminary studies on the availability of monitoring this complex system in a region of interest in Yucatan, through a support vector machine (SVM) approach.


2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ryan ◽  
T. Hennessy ◽  
C. Buckley ◽  
E.J. Dillon ◽  
T. Donnellan ◽  
...  

Abstract In the context of an expanding, export-dependent agri-food sector, indicators of sustainable development and intensification are necessary to measure, assess and verify the comparative advantage afforded by Ireland’s natural pastoral-based food production systems. Such indicators are also necessary to ensure that we produce more food with less adverse impacts on the Irish environment, climate and society. This article outlines the development of farm-level indicators that refect the multifaceted nature of sustainability, which is encompassed in economic, environmental and social indicators. The role of innovation in farm sustainability was also examined. A comparison of indicators across Irish farm systems showed that dairy farms, followed by tillage farms, tended to be the most economically and socially sustainable farm systems. In relation to greenhouse gas emissions in particular, the top-performing dairy farms, in an economic sense, also tended to be the best-performing farms from an environmental sustainability perspective. This trend was also evident in relation to the adoption of innovative practices on farm, which was found to be strongly correlated with economic performance.


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