Satellite data can help transform food systems: Satellite data can be used to increase yields and improve sustainability in smallholder agricultural systems

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Source: Science Magazine

Original: https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aee1344?af=R...

Published: 2026-02-05T07:00:12Z

Satellite data is helping to transform food systems by increasing yields and improving sustainability in small-scale farming systems.[1] These systems are typically data-poor, making it difficult to identify successful strategies and develop interventions or policies.[1] Research has developed methods using advanced satellite sensors and artificial intelligence to create field-level datasets on farm management and outcomes in data-poor systems of the Global South.[1] These datasets make it possible to understand real-world farm management and its impact on crop production and the environment, thereby identifying the most effective ways to sustainably increase production at a landscape scale.[1] The problem of previous images was the mapping of small fields with high heterogeneity of management and the lack of ground data for model training.[1] New high-resolution sensors and methods with no or minimal terrestrial data for calibration have overcome these challenges and produced previously unmeasured datasets.[1] Satellite data enabled more precise targeting of interventions to optimal locations, doubling crop yield gains over previous efforts.[1] The research group is developing a mobile application to provide yield information to target interventions in the weakest fields.[1]