Big Data technologies as success factor for smart farming services

Earth Observation, environmental data, digital maps of land surface properties, meteo station data, farm management and machine data are all ingredients of a big data stream that can serve for smart farming. This farming technique is the baseline for site-specific applications of fertilisers, plant protection and even seeding and harvesting. These are not only environmental friendly but also of economic benefit to the farmers. With the availability of massive amounts of free and open satellite images that allow observing crop growth with a high level of detail, algorithmic developments and environmental modelling tools, as well as ITC infrastructure (cloud services) the stage is set for making these smart farming services available for a variety of farming systems. They are no longer limited to huge farms but also accessible for smaller farms. The Talking Fields solutions as offered by the private company Vista will be shown as an example how big data technology can be a success factor for business development in the smart farming sector.

Dr. Heike Bach

Heike Bach

Dr. Heike Bach is educated in hydrology, geosciences and remote sensing at the Universities of Freiburg and Munich. In 1995 she founded the company VISTA, an innovative company specialised on applications of remote sensing in hydrology and agriculture. Since the foundation of the company she is Vista’s CEO and managing national and international projects. Her key areas of experience are environmental modelling of hydrological processes using remote sensing data, yield estimation, analyses of imaging spectrometer data, synergistic data utilisation (optical, microwave, GIS) and data assimilation. Bringing scientific sound solutions into practise in order to solve societal challenges is her strong motivation and passion. During the last years her research focus was on the question howEarth Observation can contribute to food security and sustainable agriculture.