Agriculture

2017, Oromia, Ethiopia On Oct 16, UN-FAO calls the world to action to tackle global hunger on its World Food Day. To commemorate this event, this animation shows 10-daily Net Primary Productivity (NPP, crop productivity) in the 2019 growing season of the pastoral areas of southern Oromia, Ethiopia. It shows the greening of cropland along the banks of the Genale and Gestro rivers, and surrounding pasture, following the rains between February and May (the shorter Belg season). The NPP images are based on PROBA-V observations and produced by VITO in the context of the FAO-funded project 'Remote sensing-based database for the monitoring of agricultural water and land productivity in Africa and the Middle East (WaPOR)', coordinated by eLeaf (NL). For reference, check our web story to compare the 2019 season with that of 2017, when a significant drought occurred.	2019, Oromia, Ethiopia On Oct 16, UN-FAO calls the world to action to tackle global hunger on its World Food Day. To commemorate this event, this animation shows 10-daily Net Primary Productivity (NPP, crop productivity) in the 2019 growing season of the pastoral areas of southern Oromia, Ethiopia. It shows the greening of cropland along the banks of the Genale and Gestro rivers, and surrounding pasture, following the rains between February and May (the shorter Belg season). The NPP images are based on PROBA-V observations and produced by VITO in the context of the FAO-funded project 'Remote sensing-based database for the monitoring of agricultural water and land productivity in Africa and the Middle East (WaPOR)', coordinated by eLeaf (NL). For reference, check our web story to compare the 2019 season with that of 2017, when a significant drought occurred.	20/09/2017, Upcoming fall, Texas, USA Whether you are studying urbanization or snow and ice cover (e.g. Lake Balaton, Hungary), monitoring food security and the sustainable use of groundwater (e.g. Saudi Arabian pivot irrigation), assisting with post-fire detection of burn scars (e.g. Portugal), or another innovative application, we hope you have come to rely on PROBA-V as a trusted source of Earth Observation data and cloud-based processing. For the PROBA-V programme, 2017 marked a number of important steps forward, with the completion of the first reprocessing (collection 1 or C1), the extension of the mission until 2019, a new web site and the second version of the Exploitation Platform, just to name a few. For next year, we already look forward to the PROBA-V Symposium (29-31 May, Ostend, Belgium), more synergies with the Copernicus Sentinel satellites (e.g. in our Belgian platform Terrascope) and to just keep going after the platform’s fifth anniversary! This 100 m PROBA-V image reveals the upcoming fall in Texas, USA, mid September 2017.	07/05/2016, Lethbridge, USA The 100 m false-colour image of 7 May 2016 shows us Lethbridge County and some other districts in the state Alberta, Canada. The economy of the county is primarily agricultural, visible as an amazing patchwork of agricultural fields. Lethbridge has a semi-arid climate, its high elevation of ~930 m and close proximity to the Rocky Mountains provides Lethbridge with cooler summers than other locations in the Canadian Prairies. These factors protect the city from strong northwest and southwest winds and contribute to frequent chinook winds during the winter. The lake in the middle of the image is Travers Reservoir. It is classified as oligotrophic. It has the lowest phosphorus and chlorophyll levels of 36 other lakes and reservoirs similarly sampled by Alberta Environment.
12/16 - 01/17, The Pampas, Argentina The fertile Pampas, grasslands located in northern Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil are frequently struck by wildfires, both from natural cause such as lightning and under manmade control, for agricultural purposes. This was the case throughout December 2016, when many fires burnt well over 300 000 hectares in the La Pampa and Rio Negro provinces. Strong winds and Summer temperatures, drought in the preceding winter and spring seasons and a decrease in ranching activities, that normally reduces availability of fine fuels, contributed to the devastation. Rain in late December helped firefighters regain control, while a few hots spots persisted in early January. This sequence of PROBA-V images, shows the vast extent of the affected area, that is intersected by the Rio Colorado River. In the southwest corner, Ria Negro River stands out as well. reference: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=89389	19/12/2016, The Pampas, Argentina The fertile Pampas, grasslands located in northern Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil are frequently struck by wildfires, both from natural cause such as lightning and under manmade control, for agricultural purposes. This was the case throughout December 2016, when many fires burnt well over 300 000 hectares in the La Pampa and Rio Negro provinces. Strong winds and Summer temperatures, drought in the preceding winter and spring seasons and a decrease in ranching activities, that normally reduces availability of fine fuels, contributed to the devastation. Rain in late December helped firefighters regain control, while a few hots spots persisted in early January.	15/01/2017, The Pampas, Argentina The fertile Pampas, grasslands located in northern Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil are frequently struck by wildfires, both from natural cause such as lightning and under manmade control, for agricultural purposes. This was the case throughout December 2016, when many fires burnt well over 300 000 hectares in the La Pampa and Rio Negro provinces. Strong winds and Summer temperatures, drought in the preceding winter and spring seasons and a decrease in ranching activities, that normally reduces availability of fine fuels, contributed to the devastation. Rain in late December helped firefighters regain control, while a few hots spots persisted in early January.	2015-2016, Cotton fields, Turkey A main agricultural activity in southern Turkey is cotton growth. The cotton fields are sown between April and June and harvested from September to November. The 100 m false-colour images of an area between Viranşehir and Ceylanpinar show that different fields are used in subsequent years, see the alternation of the green circles between 4 October 2015 (left) and 18 October 2016 (right). Further, both images show the contrast between the bright-green irrigated fields and the barren soil to the south.
13/08/2016, Nuflo de Chavez, Bolivia Ñuflo de Chávez, named after the conquistador (1518-1556) that founded the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, is a province in the eastern part of Bolivia. The image shows the Rio Grande O Guapay flowing southwards in the middle part, while various agricultural fields are visible to the north and east of this river. In the lower image part, Santa Cruz de la Sierra can be seen. West of Santa Cruz, in the lower-left part, Parque Nacional Amboro is visible.	04/04/2016, Dalhart, Texas The 100 m false-colour image of 4 April 2016 shows us Dalhart in Texas. Dalhart's economy is centered around agribusiness, including farming, ranching, feedlot operations, large scale pig farms, and, more recently a cheese processing plant. During the peak operating period of the cattle ranch (1885 to 1912), the land was in native grass. Some land was diverted into dry farmland, but there was insufficient rain to make it productive. A few irrigation wells were drilled in areas where the soil was not sandy and was level enough for row irrigation. Later, center pivot irrigation was introduced and was found to be ideal for the area's rolling sandy soils. About the same time frame, large feedlots were built due to the low-humidity climate. This created a good market for corn, which is the major crop grown by farmers in the area.	21/09/2016, Wadi As Sihan Basin, Saudi Arabia On the anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO), October 16th, World Food Day (WFD) calls for global action against hunger. Eradicating hunger is one of the Sustainable Development Goals and a major societal challenge, in particular in view of climate change and rising populations. This edition of WFD is themed ‘Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.’ and calls upon countries to address agriculture in their climatic plans. A message that will hopefully be taken up in the important discussions of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP-22, that takes place in Morocco in November. To this occasion, PROBA-V takes a false-colour look at modern agricultural fields with centre-pivot irrigation (in red) and consumption of underground water resources in the Wadi As Sirhan basin of Saudi Arabia, amidst the yellowish desert sands and surrounding low hills and rocks.	14/03/2014, Pivot Irrigation Fields, Egypt Pivot irrigation is a common agricultural practice in the aim to nourish the world’s growing population and livestock and found in many places across the world. In Egypt, with its territory largely dominated by the Sahara desert and limited rainfall, irrigation is of particular importance. In this composite image, comparing the same site in March 2014 (left) to February 2016 (right), an expansion with new irrigated fields is obvious. While undoubtedly necessary socio-economically, this comes at a price. North African countries are often united internationally to monitor and control the consumption of underground water resources – acquifers. With the hope of striking a careful balance that benefits both local farmers and households and provides an environmentally sustainable for future generations. As 100m is close to a typical size of these pivot fields in northern Africa, PROBA-V is well placed to assist with their monitoring from space.