FARMEX | ESA Space Solutions

Objectives of the service

Environmental issues have become a primary concern in the agricultural industry. Considering this, and in response to the increasing cost of nitrogen, FARMEX has been developed as a means of addressing this challenge.

FARMEX is an adaptation of the Farmstar tool, originally developed and marketed by Airbus in France, which has been tailored to meet the specific needs and conditions of other European countries.

FARMEX combines agronomic models and satellite imagery to estimate the nitrogen dose to be applied for rapeseed, wheat, and barley crops. It also offers farmers the option to split their nitrogen applications and provides variable rate maps that can be imported into the tractor’s console.

The tool addresses the need to reduce nitrogen inputs in line with environmental regulations in various countries, while also optimizing applications through within-field variable rate management.

The tool is available on a desktop and a mobile application; the indicators can also be printed via PDF reports generated at each key stage of the crop cycle.

Users and their needs

The solution is dedicated to Nitrogen fertilization practices in cereals-based farming systems, focusing on rapeseed, barley, and wheat cropping. The final users are :

Farmers and, where applicable, the farm's technical team. (e.g., tractor operators),
Extension officers from all types of organizations related to agriculture and engaged in sustainable development: cooperatives, seed producers, farmers associations, agro-businesses.

User requirements for precision agriculture services dedicated to nitrogen input optimization are:

Production cost optimization (reduction of inputs)
Regulation compliance
Yield optimization
Variable rate application
Agronomic reliability

Initially, we focused on big scale farming and agro-businesses of Eastern Europe countries, particularly Romania and Poland. Those actors show a priori the best potential for deployment of such solutions both in terms of short-term impact on natural resources as well as for consistent feedback on the solution. We also worked with partners in Croatia and Greece on cereals.

Service/ system concept

Two products are available on FARMEX, one product is dedicated to rapeseed and the other one to wheat/barley. FARMEX combines agronomic models and satellite images to compute indicators and a recommendation of fertilization.

For these two products, nitrogen modulation maps are provided and can be imported in tractor software to modulate N-inputs.

The service is available via a web interface and a mobile application. Farmers have access to their biomass maps, nitrogen recommendations, and variable rate application maps. They can also download PDF reports, made available at the beginning and end of the winter season.

The FARMEX service has been adapted to account for the farming practices of the pilot countries through close collaboration with local partners. To tailor the satellite-based biomass estimation model, field measurements were carried out to recalibrate the original model.

To produce the maps, the FARMEX service needs several sources of input data:

Satellite imagery, including Landsat, Sentinel 2. These images are used to estimate biophysical parameters such as the Leaf Area Index (LAI).
Plot data such as plot boundaries, crop type, sowing date, historical date of the field.

The client enters the input data and consults the final products on a web portal. A Backoffice portal is also available for operators to manage the production and control the products’ quality.

Space Added Value

FARMEX uses optical imagery to estimate Biomass production and consequent Nitrogen requirements.

Indeed, vegetation reflects sunlight in different ways depending on its development. This signal is captured by the satellite, processed and converted into measurements of the vegetation condition (biomass, chlorophyll). Then, the nitrogen recommendation and maps are produced from this information.

The advantage of using satellite images is to obtain the most accurate measurement of the vegetation status without having to proceed with field measurements, therefore allowing exhaustive cover with very limited or no action on the field. The represents considerable time savings. The satellites used for the FARMEX service have a very high revisit capacity, allowing to adapt to the weather to obtain usable pictures of the right stage at the right time (without cloud, fog, snow, ...).

Current Status

The FARMEX Rapeseed and FARMEX Cereals services were tested in four countries:

Poland, through a partnership with a seed company
Romania, with a large agricultural enterprise and a research institute
Croatia, on the farm of a seed company
Greece, with individual farmers

The first phase of this pilot aimed to understand fertilization practices and the specific context of each stakeholder (regulations in force, number of applications, split applications, etc.). This initial step was crucial to best adapt the tool and its recommendations to real-world conditions.

The services were then tested and evaluated by users. The user groups are summarized in the table below.

Country	Structure	Number of fields
Poland	Seeds company	13
Romania	Huge farm and research institut	23
Croatia	Seeds company	10
Greece	Farmers	20

Field measurement campaigns were carried out to sample biomass in the plots at the beginning and end of the winter season. These measurements were key to calibrating the satellite-based biomass estimation model.

Once the model was calibrated, total nitrogen application rates were generated for each plot. Users also had access to split-application recommendations and variable rate application maps. At the end of the season, questionnaires were sent to each user to evaluate the tool based on the following criteria:

Alignment with local practices
Compliance with regulations
Usability and user experience
Customer support
Relevance to user needs
Suggestions for improvement
Potential for commercialization

This pilot phase was highly valuable, as it allowed the tool to evolve in line with the needs and practices of farmers. Several suggestions for improvement have been proposed and will be incorporated into the tool’s roadmap for future seasons.

These pilot projects also helped prioritize countries and organizations for future commercialization.