Monitoring crop phenology using a smartphone based near-surface remote sensing approach

In Abstract

Using smartphones to monitor farmers crops

Smallholder farmers underpin food security across Asia and Africa, but are highly exposed to risks posed by extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves. Impacts of extreme weather on agricultural productivity depend on the timing of the event during the crop growth season. Consequently, the ability to monitor field-level variability crop phenology (growth stage) within smallholder agricultural systems is essential for estimating the distributional impacts of extreme weather and targeting local interventions to increase farmers’ adaptive capacity.

An international group of researchers from the University of Manchester, Belgium and United States demonstrated the ability to use crowd-sourced smartphone imagery to monitor winter wheat phenology and identify crop damage caused by extreme weather in northwest India – one of the world’s most important agricultural systems. The researchers show that farmer-reported smartphone images provide detailed and accurate information about the timing of key wheat developmental phases and weather-related crop losses, which cannot be detected through alternative approaches such as satellite remote sensing or national crop surveys. Findings from this research are currently being implemented to develop improved crop insurance products for smallholders in India, using smartphone image analysis to increase the cost-effectiveness and accuracy of yield loss verification.

Read more here - DOI 10.1016/j.agrformet.2018.11.002