EARTH OBSERVATION FARMING

Project Information

EO-FARM

Grant agreement ID: 650082

DOI

10.3030/650082

Project closed

EC signature date 19 September 2014

Start date 1 October 2014

End date 31 March 2015

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Space

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

IPTSAT SRL
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EO-FARM (EARTH OBSERVATION FARMING)

Reporting period: 2014-10-01 to 2015-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

EO-FARM project will cover the topic of Precision Farming (PF), one of the main applications of Earth Observation in the agricultural industry; it makes use of satellite images to help farmers in monitoring and managing crops from planting to harvesting.
One of the main needs of farmers, in particular smaller ones which account for 80% of the UAA in EU27, is the possibility to increase yields while reducing the costs and environmental impacts of current crop production processes.
EO-FARM main objective is to launch in the market an innovative PF service which targets especially small farms (average size between 5-30ha), addressing a clear user need, and to enter in the emerging market of commercial applications of EO downstream services in agriculture.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

A detailed analysis of already existing PF competitive solutions has been performed, with particular emphasis on their costs and market share; at the same time, further feedback by end users has been collected to confirm the services offered by EO-FARM;

A development plan has been realized, reporting a detailed description of how the platform will be implemented during phase 2 of the project. Risks have been identified and a contingency plan and project milestones have been realized.
Key stakeholders have been identified that can support the market introduction of the proposed solution, such as agricultural associations and cooperatives, and a value proposition towards such stakeholders as well as towards the end users (small farms) has been defined. A set of relevant events for dissemination and marketing actions have been also identified.
All the analyses performed have been integrated in a business plan; the business plan includes value proposition, the business model, Profit&Loss Models, ROI Calculation – Revenues&Cost Breakdown, commercialization strategy, marketing strategy, as well as the organisational plan for the commercial phase. A financial plan will also be included indicating the expected development and commercialisation costs, and the financial sources that will be needed to perform the plan.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The impact on the EU agricultural Market will be huge, considering that the current market for commercial applications of EO downstream services in agriculture is about € 34 million and the estimated EO downstream services Total Addressable Market (TAM) for the Agriculture sector amounts to approximately € 0,4 billion.
In this context The EO-FARM project is expected to bring IPTSAT a net profit ranging within € 1,150 and € 1,780 million, with an overall corresponding project ROI between 13,5 % and 76,1% in 5 years.
Additionally EO-FARM will have positive impacts on small farmers by increasing productivity and sustainability by means of improved resource efficiency: it will possible to use less water, energy, fertilisers (especially phosphorus and nitrogen) and pesticides.

EO-FARM registered logo

EO-FARM concept