BayWa Competition for Satellite Data Use in Agriculture: The Finalists Are Confirmed

The first BayWa Smart Farming Challenge has reached the home stretch: A jury comprised of representatives from BayWa and the FarmFacts and Vista Group companies has named three finalists from the 29 submitted innovations. Their entries deal with using satellite data to avoid overfertilisation and reduce water usage, as well as to detect plant disease in the early stages. BayWa's Smart Farming Challenge is one of 16 categories in the international Copernicus Masters, an innovation competition initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Anwendungszentrum Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO).

'Population growth, climate change and the demand for environmental protection and sustainability in production are only three of the big challenges facing the global agricultural industry, which in turn affects food security,' says Klaus Josef Lutz, Chief Executive Officer of BayWa AG. 'We are convinced that the utilisation of satellite data will have a large impact on ensuring the supply of basic foodstuffs. All of the participants in the Smart Farming Challenge have devised interesting ways of making this not only more efficient for the farmers, but also more sustainable.'

Among the finalists selected by BayWa are an Italian group from the National Research Council who have concentrated on large-scale monitoring of water usage via satellite and evaluating it in terms of its impact on the environment. Especially for arid regions such as the Western Cape in South Africa, this solution can aid in utilising scarce water resources as efficiently as possible.

Vultus, a Swedish start-up, is tackling the task of minimising the use of nitrogen in the agricultural industry using satellite data. With the use of application maps, just the right amount of fertiliser is used to ensure optimised plant growth.

The third team to make it to the finals is a group from the Latvian Institute of Electronics and Computer Science and has developed a method of classifying types of fruit as well as detecting plant disease via satellite. After previous successes with projects in the forestry sector, the Latvians wish to expand their image analysis technique to the agricultural industry.

The winners of the Copernicus Masters competition will all be honoured in early December during the European Space Week in Marseilles, France, at the 'Space Oscars' ceremony. Aside from €5,000 in prize money, the winner of BayWa's Smart Farming Challenge will also be invited to participate in a comprehensive mentoring programme by BayWa and its Group companies, which will help make their innovation market-ready. The ESA, the AZO and their partners have been awarding the Copernicus Masters (www.copernicus-masters.com) for satellite-based innovations used to help tackle global challenges since 2011. In total, 188 start-ups have participated in the competition's 16 categories this year.

Picture 1: Italian group from the National Research Council (^© National Research Council)

Picture 2: Vultus, a Swedish start-up (^© Vultus)

Picture 3: The group from the Latvian Institute of Electronics and Computer Science (^© Institute of Electronics and Computer Science)

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