Field Boundary Delineation Tool
The challenge Contract farming provides a sound basis for cane farming systems. For farmers and growers, and also for mills buying the raw cane, production contracts are essential in order to define the number of inputs, and to estimate the output delivered at the
factory gate. All this planning and operational management starts with the area farmed. Knowing the size of the farm is therefore essential. However, farm field size is not always known, nor correctly registered.
Every season, due to mechanized operations, erosion or other factors, the dimension of a field can change ever so slightly. It can expand or shrink. Changes can happen both gradually or abruptly, unknowingly or intentional. Preseason input planning and application
recipes are calculated based on area. This is the case for growers buying their own inputs, as well as for mills contracting outgrowers and providing inputs. So, be it for growers or estate field management, an accurate geographical delineated field registry is critical to
improve input logistics, contracting and supply chain management.
For mills it is difficult to assess the amount of cane available for the crushing season. Not only the quantity but also the harvest timing is often not know. Therefore the decision to shut down a factory is based often on guesswork.
Thus, fields sizes definitions are prone to errors in a structural and dynamic way. Production planning, economic forecasts, agronomic improvement possibilities and eventually productivity is negatively affected leading to sub-optimal yields. Ultimately, in all its forms, not
knowing the area well, will affect farm efficiency, productivity and economic rentability.
The solution We offer a solution that delineates field boundaries using satellite images, crop models and AI. The field boundaries are drawn based on the standing crop on the field. This way each and every growing season, production areas reflect the area producing crop,
leaving aside, area used by feeder roads, hedges or tree cover.
The field delineation is defined in two steps:
A first base layer of fields is generated using remote sensing imagery from different satellites and enriched through AI models. Ground truthing increases the accuracy. Fortunately, in many countries ground truthing has been implemented at the moment, thus models are
ready to deliver. This base layer shows fields, with any type of land use.
Secondly, crop identification models distinguish between mayor crop types. They are set to identify sugarcane. For all sugarcane fields, planting dates and harvesting dates can be estimated on a field-by-field basis. Providing essential planning information to the factory
operations of hauling and harvesting.
This analyses can be repeated at any preferred interval, providing a new layer of reliability to the sugarcane production system.
The impact Wit the results of the field boundary delineation tool, growers and mills have a new powerful tool to optimise the production process. The positive impact can be seen in farm planning, including the field operations and the optimisation of the procurement of
inputs in the preseason phase.
Labour operations and energy management during the growing season can be optimised, as well as the accuracy of the analyses and benchmarking, in order to find the optimal balance of inputs and outputs.
Contract farming is supported with higher transparency, specifically in data poor areas.
Implementing the field delineation tool with growers and production management teams allows for:
Maximized efficiency of resource use
Easy field integration when sourcing cane from a new area
Solid basis for production contracts
Reliability for benchmarking in order to increase productivity
For outgrower management the field delineation tool gives clear oversight in a data-poor areas, the tool allows for:
Transparency in the contracting phase
Pre-identification of new field
Real-time updates on the amount of cane planted and estimated harvest moment
This service is provided in collaboration with DIGIFARM.