SENSAGRI · Project

Satellite-Powered Crop Monitoring That Tells Farmers What's Happening in Their Fields Right Now

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Imagine having a weather app, but instead of rain forecasts, it shows you exactly how wet your soil is, how green your crops are, and what's actually growing in every field — updated almost daily. SENSAGRI combined two types of satellite eyes (one that sees through clouds using radar, one that captures color like a camera) to create this kind of farm dashboard. They tested it across real farms in Spain, France, Italy, and Poland, building working software that can track soil moisture, crop health, and even detect whether a field has been irrigated or plowed.

By the numbers

European agricultural test areas for validation (Spain, France, Italy, Poland)

consortium partners across 4 countries

core prototype services (soil moisture, leaf area index, crop type mapping)

advanced proof-of-concept services (yield, tillage, irrigation, crop maps)

total project deliverables produced

minimum non-European countries for demonstration

The business problem

What needed solving

Farmers, insurers, and water managers today rely on expensive ground sensors, manual field visits, or outdated survey data to understand what is happening in agricultural fields. Satellite data exists for free, but turning raw radar and optical images into actionable farm intelligence — soil moisture, crop health, field-by-field crop identification — requires specialized algorithms that most companies cannot build in-house.

The solution

What was built

The project delivered a final operational soil moisture prototype combining Sentinel-1 radar and Sentinel-2 optical data, a data repository with time series storage and querying architecture for raster and vector data, and crop type mapping and leaf area index monitoring tools. Four additional proof-of-concept services were developed for yield estimation, tillage change detection, irrigation monitoring, and advanced crop mapping.

Audience

Who needs this

AgTech companies building farm management or precision agriculture platformsCrop insurance providers needing satellite-based damage assessmentIrrigation districts and water authorities managing agricultural water allocationAgricultural ministries and paying agencies verifying EU subsidy complianceFood companies and cooperatives monitoring supply chain crop conditions

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Precision Agriculture & AgTech

SME

Target: AgTech companies building farm management platforms

If you are an AgTech company looking to add satellite-based intelligence to your platform — this project developed operational prototypes for soil moisture mapping, crop type identification, and leaf area index monitoring using free Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. The system was validated across 4 European agricultural test areas and at least 2 non-European countries. Integrating these algorithms could give your customers near real-time field insights without expensive ground sensors.

Agricultural Insurance

enterprise

Target: Crop insurance providers needing field-level risk data

If you are an insurance company struggling to assess crop damage claims accurately — this project built satellite-based tools that detect soil moisture levels, crop stress, and irrigation patterns at field scale. The 3 core prototypes and 4 advanced proof-of-concept services (yield estimation, tillage detection, irrigation monitoring) were tested on real farmland across 4 countries. This data could replace expensive on-site inspections with continuous satellite monitoring.

Water Resource Management

any

Target: Irrigation districts and water utilities serving agricultural regions

If you are a water management authority trying to optimize irrigation allocation — this project created a surface soil moisture prototype and an irrigation detection service using combined radar and optical satellite data. Validated across farms in Spain, France, Italy, and Poland (4 test areas), the system can show which fields are irrigated and which soils are dry, helping allocate water where it is actually needed.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to use this satellite monitoring technology?

The underlying satellite data from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 is free under EU open data policy. The project developed prototype algorithms and a data repository, so the main cost would be in licensing or adapting these software tools and running the computing infrastructure. No pricing model was published in the project data.

Can this work at industrial scale across large farming regions?

The prototypes were designed for near real-time operations and validated across 4 European agricultural test areas in Spain, France, Italy, and Poland, which represent European crop diversity. The system was also demonstrated in at least 2 non-European countries, suggesting it can scale beyond single-farm use to regional monitoring.

Who owns the intellectual property and can I license it?

The project was coordinated by Universitat de Valencia (Spain) with a consortium of 7 partners across 4 countries. As a publicly funded RIA project, IP is typically held by the consortium partners. Licensing terms would need to be negotiated with the coordinator and relevant partners.

How current and reliable is the monitoring data?

The system was built for near real-time operations, combining radar (works through clouds) and optical satellite passes. The final operational soil moisture prototype and data repository with time series querying capability were delivered as working software. Accuracy was validated against ground truth in the 4 test areas.

Can this integrate with existing farm management software?

The project built a data repository with architecture to store and query time series of raster and vector data, including a data engine. Based on available project data, the system appears designed with standard data formats, but specific API documentation or integration guides would need to be requested from the consortium.

Does it work for my specific crop types and region?

The algorithms were validated across 4 European agricultural test areas representing European crop diversity (Spain, France, Italy, Poland) and demonstrated in at least 2 non-European countries. The crop type mapping service was specifically designed to handle diverse agricultural landscapes using combined optical and radar measurements.

Is this compliant with EU agricultural regulations and CAP requirements?

The project was positioned as a baseline for a potential new Copernicus land service, which suggests alignment with EU Earth observation policy. The Living Lab approach involved agricultural sector actors in refining product specifications. Based on available project data, specific CAP compliance was not explicitly addressed but the monitoring capabilities align with greening and cross-compliance verification needs.

Consortium

Who built it

The 7-partner consortium across Spain, France, Italy, and Poland is heavily research-oriented: 4 research organizations, 2 universities, and 1 other entity, with zero industrial partners and zero SMEs. This is a strong scientific team — coordinated by Universitat de Valencia — but the complete absence of agribusiness or technology companies means the results have not been stress-tested by commercial users. For a business looking to adopt this technology, you would be the first commercial adopter, which means opportunity to shape the product but also more integration work on your end.

UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIACoordinator · ES
INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO AGRARIO DE CASTILLA Y LEONparticipant · ES
CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHEparticipant · IT
UNIVERSITE PAUL SABATIER TOULOUSE IIIparticipant · FR
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRSthirdparty · FR
CONSIGLIO PER LA RICERCA IN AGRICOLTURA E L'ANALISI DELL'ECONOMIA AGRARIAparticipant · IT

How to reach the team

Universitat de Valencia, Spain — reach out to their remote sensing or Earth observation department

Order a report on this consortium See UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to connect with the SENSAGRI team to explore licensing their satellite crop monitoring prototypes? SciTransfer can arrange an introduction and help structure a pilot agreement.

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