A one-stop shop of Earth observation services for agriculture and forestry
Agriculture and forestry are important socioeconomic sectors that together account for nearly 75 % of land use in the EU. Both are also very vulnerable to climate change and require significant energy and water inputs. Enhancing their sustainability and resilience while improving their productivity is essential to the well-being of the EU economy, its citizens and the planet. Earth observation services for the agriculture and forestry sectors are making an important contribution to meeting these goals and the number of service providers and services is growing. The EU-funded NextLand project created an innovative business model, connecting service providers with users to accelerate uptake and impact.
Co-creation of many services addressing user scenarios
“NextLand offers 28 services, all based on Copernicus data collections including Sentinel 1, 2 and 3 as well as the Copernicus Climate Change and Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Services. They are bundled according to several key user scenarios identified via a co-creation process with selected stakeholders and addressing key sustainability goals of the agriculture and forestry sectors,” explains project coordinator Nuno Grosso of Deimos. Improved crop monitoring and yield prediction services enable early problem detection and optimised fertilisation and irrigation to minimise environmental impact. The bundle of irrigation support services offers cutting-edge techniques and technologies for more efficient water use and increased production. Crop planning optimisation provides advice on optimal locations and conditions for growing crops to obtain the highest yields with minimal soil degradation. The other bundles comprise early detection of stressors (such as pests, diseases and droughts) and reduction of their impact, forest regeneration, and fire risk assessment and impact including services to minimise both risk and impact.
A unified marketplace-based business model
“NextLand’s one-stop shop enables Earth observation service providers to streamline the introduction of their services to market, helping them to expand their markets and decrease operational costs. The end-users benefit from individual or bundled Earth observation services that are highly accurate, with near-real time information, customisable and offered at competitive prices,” summarises Grosso. Soil Essentials, an agriculture consultancy company that provides integrated precision farming solutions and a NextLand alpha user, agrees: “Our major benefit is the quick and easy access from one single platform to lots of services coming from some of Europe’s best service providers, guaranteeing high quality. The store’s [application programming interface] automates…delivery and integration of data into our services and supports a remote payment system.”
Future-oriented and actively expanding
NextLand is actively expanding its business model, growing its service provider and customer network. A partnership with CONFAGRI, a confederation of Portuguese agricultural cooperatives with varied crops and thousands of members, is one example. It aims to promote NextLand services to CONFAGRI's associates, forming the foundation for the technical consultancy services CONFAGRI provides. Grosso adds: “If you're creating an Earth observation algorithm or application for agriculture or forestry and aiming to commercialise it, NextLand offers support for developing an operational service with clear service information and pricing structures. If you're focused on enhancing your research with reliable Earth observation-based products for agriculture or forestry, explore our service portfolio to enhance the quality of your results.” NextLand’s one-stop shop of Earth observation services is streamlining the connection between service providers and service users to enhance the sustainability, resilience and productivity of agriculture and forestry.
Keywords
NextLand, agriculture, forestry, Earth observation services, Copernicus, sustainability, climate change, irrigation, soil, crop monitoring, forest regeneration
