Tuesday 28 July 2009

Satellite Imagery use in eco-Farming to increase crop yields with minimum use of resources

On a micro level an individual farmer can learn which areas of his crops need water or a boost from nitrogen to help them grow properly or which are diseased. He may then increase yields by only using what effort, fuel, water, fertiliser and chemicals are needed!

Macro level satellite imagery is being used worldwide to identify crops, then to monitor growth, condition, spread of disease and to forecast harvest levels. Such ongoing detailed information must be made public through the Internet to help ensure farmers and the ecology benefit - not those who wish to restrict access to such information, seeking to profit from markets or by controlling supply and prices.

The technology is being used to monitor eco-criminal destruction of rain forests and damage to critical ecological environments - the results show no effective controls or policing are yet in place to stop it.

It can be used to identify the true extent of eco-criminal animal farming and its damage to the Earth's ecology.

I disagree with those that might argue for the privacy of any information obtained from agri-satellite imagery to identify and monitor drug crops, used to develop and plan strategic action to stop its harvest and future planting. . The need for privacy and secrecy is questionable, as there is often a real need for the public and media to police the police and government! Satellite imaging could also identify and map heat signatures from buildings, to police the industrial farming of drug crops.