Introducing the Agritask Vegetation Index

Israeli ag-management platform Agritask has introduced a new vegetation index based on Radar Satellite imagery – the Agritask Vegetation Index (ATVI) – enabling remote visibility and monitoring of field operations throughout the season, regardless of weather conditions.

With ATVI, users are able to monitor crop conditions, identify planting dates, forecast harvest dates and assess plant growth patterns, providing remote visibility and monitoring of field operations.

Based on European Space Agency (ESA) radar images from the Sentinel-1 satellites, ATVI provides Agritask users with imagery and analysis of their plots along with an accurate estimation of vegetation growth.

The satellites provide an up-to-date image every 12 days, in varying climate conditions including cloud coverage. Agritask’s proprietary model then generates an ATVI image, enabling growers and remote stakeholders to continuously monitor crop conditions throughout the season, especially during the cloudy season when climate conditions and cloud coverage prohibit the use of alternative remote sensing methods.

ATVI was developed using Agritask’s machine learning technology and leveraging its hub of aggregated agronomic and GIS data.

The first release of the index includes support for soybeans and maize, with planned coverage for several additional crops to be released in the near future.

The news follows the launch of a satellite-based pasture insurance tool for Brazilian livestock farmers, providing them with protection against production losses caused by climate events. The index insurance is based on the Airbus Grassland Production Index; allowing AgroBrasil to offer appropriate compensation to farmers with production losses, who can then buy forage to ensure that their livestock is fed. The coverage is “easily accessible” via AgriTask’s online platform.

Bottom Line: The ATVI index combined with numerous other sources of data in Agritask’s Agronomic Intelligence (AgI) Platform enables growers and stakeholders in the agri-food eco-system including Food & Beverage and Insurance companies to generate insights and make fact-based decisions to increase predictability, manage risk and optimize overall performance.