The EO/GI users in agriculture are active in Agricultural commodities/Trading, agricultural production / Horticulture, Agricultural services, Agriculture machinery, Agriculture and Rural Development Policy, Agro chemicals / Plants & Fertilizers, Animal production / Livestock. The EO/GI users also include agriculture and rural policy makers.
They benefit from EO information, for example, by managment support for their crop production through forecasting crop yield, assess risks of damage/loss because of storms, disease or other stress factors, and water monitoring. Use in agriculture: knowledge and information products to forge a viable strategy for farming operations. Understand the health of his crop, extent of infestation or stress damage, or potential yield and soil conditions
Agricultural activity is sustained by good environmental conditions that allow farmers to harness natural resources, create their produce and earn a living. This fosters a sustainable rural economy while food produced by agriculture sustains society as a whole.
To monitor crops and agriculture with EO-based methods is relevant for various applications, including to assess environmental impact of farming, assess crop damage due to storms, to detect ollegal or undesired crops, to monitor water use on crops and horticulture, and to monitor land degradation neutrality. EO mapping of crops happens on all scales with both optical and SAR sensors. Relevant EO products include degradation, agri-environment, ecosystem, damage estimation, warning-service, food-security, impact, crop health (disease and stress), leaf area index, crop acreage and yield harvest (inventories / statistics), crop types (extent, growth, health, stress), land surface temperature, illicit crops, estimates, cultivation patterns, soil water index, surface soil moisture, run-off, land cover (land cover change), land productivity (net primary productivity, NPP), carbon stocks (soil organic carbon, SOC).
Monitoring food security includes the monitoring of food availability by environmental conditions (land cover, NDVI,...), as well as the monitoring of migration patterns. Risks that can lead to food insecurity are hazards or conflicts.