Mexican Crop Observation, Management & Production Analysis Services System (COMPASS) (IPP Case Study)

The Crop Observation, Management and Production Analysis Services System (COMPASS) uses satellite Earth observation (EO) data to help smallholder farmers manage their sugar cane and wheat farms. It helps optimise crop productivity by identifying factors that cause the yield gap between crop potential and actual field performance. It also provides agronomic support to advisory services, agribusiness, farmer cooperatives, crop insurers and governments. The service is offered through a free mobile application for the farmers and a dashboard for the supply chain users.

The system uses Sentinel-2 EO data, in combination with commercial EO data with a 10-metre resolution and a five-day revisit period, which makes it ideal for monitoring crop yield. The EO data is combined with 30 site-specific parameters grouped by soil, management, inputs and environment that determine the production efficiency of wheat and sugar cane crops, e.g. soil type, harvest date, disease control and temperature. It assists the wheat and sugarcane farmers to monitor their crop health every week with satellite and crop model data analysis and advises farmers of the potential gap in their crops forecast MEXICAN COMPASS yield versus maximum potential yield, optimal sowing and irrigation dates. It also provides a log of crop management activities and reminders from sowing until harvest. The farmers just require a mobile phone or desktop computer plus an internet connection and no other IT infrastructure is required to provide the technology.