EO4cultivar is increasing the resilience and sustainability of commercial agricultural supply chains operating between Colombia, Peru, Paraguay and the UK. The outputs of EO4cultivar have been delivered through close collaborative working between the partnership of UK and international organisations, led by Environment Systems.

EO4cultivar contributes to the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and is part of the  UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme (IPP).

The project delivers new forms of evidence and advice to growers, farm advisers, and other stakeholders ultimately helping adapt farming practices in response to new knowledge derived from Earth observation. EO4cultivar has developed Agri-track which offers a suite of crop monitoring and forecasting products at farm, regional and national scales building on Environment Systems’ world class capability in Earth Observation analytics.

The project is increasing skill-levels in partner countries by capacity building and technical assistance to support the use of Earth observation data and technology. EO4cultivar is supporting three fully funded PhDs for Latin American students to study in UK partner universities.

EO4cultivar includes two case studies, coordinated by JNCC, to improve understanding of how adopting a natural capital approach to land management can increase ecosystem resilience.

The study used our SENCE (Spatial Evidence for Natural Capital Evaluation) toolkit for mapping and modelling ecosystem services. You can also download the open source datasets and supporting guidance at the JNCC hub.

You can read more about our activities in Latin America here.

The EO4cultivar Consortium

The EO4cultivar project consortium is led by Environment Systems. It consists of eight UK and seven international partners.

UK Partners

Environment Systems
A trusted provider of evidence and insight in agriculture, agri-environment, ecology and ecosystem services to deliver monitoring, baselining, mapping and modelling with a strong track record of working across the UK as well as internationally.
Role: Project lead. Development of EO-derived products and services and their commercialisation.

Aberystwyth University
The Earth Observation and Ecosystem Dynamics Laboratory (EOED) at Aberystwyth University brings expertise in Remote Sensing, GIS and open source software development. Also at the university, IBERS (The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences) works to improve measurements from Earth observation of plant traits leading to improved crop variety development.
Role: Providing technical support and supervision to 2 PhDs in crop yield forecasting and the mapping of within field anomalies of crops using Earth observation.

Barfoots
UK based fruit and vegetable producer with operations worldwide. Largest importer of asparagus from Peru. Strong focus on improving sustainability and environmental credentials of products, but also on improving their supply chain management.
Role: Partner for the development of business intelligence tools for monitoring and forecasting of asparagus

GeoSeren
A small consultancy with a track record of working in Latam specialising in the exploitation of EO data for agricultural applications.
Role: Specialist advice and technical input

JNCC
Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is the public body that advises the UK Government and devolved administrations on UK-wide and international nature conservation.
Role: Coordination of the Sustainable Livelihoods Case Studies

University of Stirling
Department: Biological and Environmental Sciences
Role: Providing technical support and supervision to the PhDs in the applications of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for mapping and monitoring crops.

Wavehill
Independent monitoring and evaluation services for public, private and third sector clients.
Role: Leading Monitoring and Evaluation of the project.

International Partner Organisations

ASBAMA
ASBAMA is the Federation of banana Growers in the Magdalena and La Guajira regions in Colombia. They provide an advisory and facilitation role to their members which comprise 105 producers and 183 smallholders.
Role: Working together with their key strategic partners help EO4c develop products and services for the banana sector.

Campo Vivo/ Congelagro
Campo Vivo Negocio Social SAS is a non-profit social enterprise organisation seeking to overcome rural poverty through support of potato growers in rural areas of Boyaca, Colombia and is co-located with Congelagro the commercial potato organisation of McCains in Colombia.
Role: Assist with the development and use of crop monitoring products.

Danper
Danper is a large commercial grower and exporter of vegetables, fruits and super grains. They are the second largest exporter of asparagus in Peru with markets in all 5 continents. With over 7,000 hectares of land in Peru, Danper is one of the Peruvian companies with the strongest environmental, sustainable and ethical credentials.
Role: Assist with the development and use of crop monitoring products for asparagus growers in their supply chain: from large-scale farms to smallholder growers.

DM Agricola
Growing asparagus, avocados, and citrus, DM Agricola has strong experience in agronomy, fruit production and supply chain in Peru.
Role: Assist with the development and use of crop monitoring products.

Geits
Geits is a Colombian start-up that has been developing the OCultivos, a platform for crop monitoring and visualising data.
Role: Receive technical assistance on the development of their platform and access to Analysis ready satellite data to support their business.

ITP
The Technological Ministry of Production in Peru (ITP) has 12 regional centres of innovation for production and technological transfer (CITEs). They have the objective to improve the competitiveness of local businesses through research, development, and technological transfer.
Role: The project is working with CITE Agroindustrial Chavimochic which serves the Chavimochic region in La Libertad, northwest of Peru to improve irrigation management for smallholders in the Viru valley.

Prisma
Prisma is an SME technology service provider that aims to develop a better understanding on how to increase production, improve margins, produce crop forecasts and to identify opportunities for land management in Paraguay.
Role: Provide access to their strategic partner, the certification body and grower Peterson and Control Union, who will assist with the development and use of crop monitoring products.

Funding

EO4cultivar is part of the UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme (IPP), a £30 million per year programme, which uses expertise in space-based solutions, applications and capability to provide a sustainable economic or societal benefit to emerging nations and developing economies. IPP is funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), a £1.5 billion fund provided by the UK Government, which supports cutting-edge research and innovation on global issues affecting developing countries. The GCRF forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment. You can learn more and see a map of the IPP projects here.