Satellite imagery helps boost crop production

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Published: September 15, 2022

Emergency workers are ensuring it is safe near a burning combine that set off a mine in a wheat field near the village of Vilkhivka, in the Kharkiv region.  |   State Emergency Service of Ukraine photo via Reuters

Ukrainian farm says precision agriculture technology helps it offset lost yields due to an inability to seed all of its fields

Farming has always had its occupational hazards, but the dangers have increased significantly this year for farmers in Ukraine.

“We have 120,000 hectares of land, with the majority in the Chernihiv, Poltava and Sumy regions,” says Oleksii Misyura head of research and development at IMC, one of the largest agricultural holdings in Ukraine.

“We didn’t sow many fields this year due to the war. There are tanks and empty shells lying around. Some fields are mined.

Tank shells and missiles litter fields, along with mines and other deadly pieces waiting for farmers to encounter. | OneSoil photo

“In such conditions, precision farming helps to optimize resources. With OneSoil, we calculated how much we can save by redistributing fertilizers between different productivity zones, reducing the rate in some field areas and increasing it in others, thus lowering input consumption and increasing profits. Last year, this approach allowed us to improve the average profit per hectare by $32. This year we have already used variable rate application of fertilizers on 25,000 hectares.”

Fields are home to more than crops, the discards of war are everywhere in many parts of Ukraine. | OneSoil photo

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Ron Lyseng

Ron Lyseng

Western Producer

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