BASF and Planet: Revolutionizing agriculture with digital innovation

Date:12-16-2024

As the global population rises and food demand increases, ensuring access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food is more critical than ever. For growers, embracing the digital agriculture revolution is essential to building infrastructure and tools that enhance sustainability, both economically and environmentally. Satellite remote sensing is particularly transformative in this regard, helping farmers improve yields, optimize costs, and transition to more sustainable operations.

A Visionary Partnership

BASF, a European-based multinational company, is at the forefront of digital agriculture, leveraging Planet’s data and services to provide insights and recommendations throughout the growing season. Since 2020, BASF has utilized analytics derived from Planet’s near-daily imagery to support growers in sustaining expected yields while making more efficient use of crop protection products.

BASF’s commitment to innovation is exemplified by powering xarvio^® Digital Farming Solutions, with products like xarvio^® FIELD MANAGER and xarvio^® HEALTHY FIELDS. These tools provide independent, timely, and field-specific agronomic advice, helping farmers produce crops more efficiently, sustainably, and profitably.

Harnessing Satellite Imagery for Enhanced Crop Management

xarvio’s FIELD MANAGER platform integrates Planet’s near-daily PlanetScope imagery, data from weather stations, and other sources to allow farmers to closely monitor and manage crop growth. This integration provides a comprehensive view of fields, enabling informed, timely decisions tailored to specific zones, optimizing yields, and minimizing risks. 

Key features of xarvio FIELD MANAGER include:

• PowerZone Maps: Utilizing PlanetScope Archive data, these maps highlight yield performance areas, aiding in seeding, nutrition, and other farming operations.

• Leaf Area Index (LAI)-based Biomass Maps: Leveraging optical data from both Sentinel-2 and PlanetScope, these maps indicate leaf coverage per ground unit, essential for precise Variable Rate Application, optimizing the use of fertilizers, water, and crop protection.

• Daily Monitoring Maps: Based on Planet’s Crop Biomass Planetary Variable, these maps enable continuous oversight of crop health, regardless of weather conditions.

In a recent video interview, Mojtaba Karami, Team Lead for Geospatial (Weather & Remote Sensing) at BASF, shared insights into the partnership with Planet and its impact on agriculture. He highlighted how the use of Planet’s daily imagery has allowed BASF to optimize fertilization and nutrition on the field, demonstrating significant increases in yield and reductions in input use during field trials in Japan, for example.

Karami emphasized the importance of reliable satellite imagery for making timely decisions and the immense value it brings to farmers. ″Planet’s imaging of the Earth on a daily basis provides strong value for us and our growers. It enables timely field optimizations and supports farmers in making informed decisions,″ he noted.