ON THE FARM...Crop Management from Orbit -
No Small Potatoes!

NASA’s Landsat satellites are designed to observe the changing conditions on the Earth’s surface. This satellite series began launching in 1972, and have been in operation for over 20 years. If you look at the benefits of NASA technology for all humankind, you will see that Landsats are used to manage the harvesting of fish in the world’s oceans. Landsat is also being used to harvest another crop - potatoes!

CROPIX, Inc., Hermiston, Oregon, takes advantage of a Landsat passing over the American northwest. The satellite snaps images of potato crops in a 20,000 square-mile area of Oregon and Washington. The satellite data is used to calculate how well potato crops are doing.

How does this help farmers? The more potatoes there are, the less money farmers will get for their crop. If the satellite data shows there are too many potatoes, it means the price is going down, so sell your potatoes now! If fewer potatoes are growing in the area, a farmer might decide to harvest early and get a higher price.

When you’re talking thousands of tons of potatoes at $130 a ton, that's no small potatoes!