Crop health monitoring and yield forecast

The Challenge; Sugarcane is a high-investment, long-duration crop that is sensitive to water stress, nutrient deficiencies, and outbreaks of pests or disease — all of which
can significantly reduce yield and affect sugar recovery. ​

As a sugarcane farmer, much of your time, money, and effort are spend on scouting issues. But even when you have done everything according to the book, your crop may
suffer, from pests, diseases, poor soil preparation, drainage issues, inferior planting material, lack of water — and you don’t always find out before harvest is shipped.
Keeping oversight is difficult as cane outgrows the human eye, and getting expert help isn’t always easy nor affordable. ​

And most importantly, the potential harvest of many fields is not reached. Average harvests reach 65 or 70 tons per ha worldwide, whereas 110 tons could be reached
considering a potential yield of 180-220 tons. ​

The Solution; With satellite-based crop health monitoring and weekly reports, SmartCane provides eyes, early warning and prioritises field activities. A full-scale, and cost-
effective assessment of crop conditions across all fields on your farm, including regions with fragmented landholdings and long distance field-to-field travel times.​

The reports provided are based on the chlorophyll index, or CI for short, this is an indicator for leaf-greenness and a direct indicator in crop health. The weekly reports show
each of your fields, the actual crop status, the crop development on a rolling three weeks overview. The CI is more sensitive to changes in leaf greenness or canopy density
then the human eye, an shows you where, when and why your cane may not be growing as it could. ​

The reports include maps and graphs showing the growth trend of the crop week-in week-out, from the start of the season to the end. SmartCane focusses on the initial dips
in the curve, the so-called onset of a negative trend which may not yet be visible with the human eye, and which can be turned back when discovered early. ​

Finally yield estimations are important in order to prepare for the harvest, timing, transport and negotiation power with the millers, essentially important to drive the
revenues of the farm to healthy levels. ​

The impact; Growers using SmartCane move from the average yields, increasing 5%-10% against no costs. Furthermore, SmartCane users are aware of the issues on their
farm, and start to plan ahead in order to overcome these, either with instant field activities, like weeding, gap filling, drainage ditches or nozzle replacement; or they are set
to improve the land preparation shortly after harvest, dramatically increasing the next years harvest.