Improving French Precision Farming

Visioplaine operates a web-based platform to distribute services to cooperatives and farmers. S2B has identified RapidEye as a geo-information provider in the industry capable of delivering remote sensing-based information on agricultural areas at a high temporal frequency.

RapidEye provided S2B's Visioplaine platform with biomass maps to support nitrogen fertilisation of canola fields for five regions from early winter 2008 to early spring 2009. In June 2009, RapidEye delivered chlorophyll maps for 2 different areas in France. The results and field measurements are being tested, analyzed, and confirmed this year before introducing this solution into the wheat market in 2010. The cooperatives and scientific institutes contributed information collected in the fields, whereas RapidEye was responsible for the

analysis from the remote sensing perspective, and delivered an intermediate product in the form of biomass and chlorophyll maps.

Based on these maps, S2B was able to make recommendations for nitrogen fertilisation in canola and wheat fields to the farming community through their Visioplaine platform. In early 2009, S2B and RapidEye entered into a strategic partnership agreement for all remote sensing

projects that Visioplaine plans over the next three years. Through the partnership with S2B's Visioplaine platform, RapidEye will increase its visibility in the French Precision Farming market.

Future projects with S2B include Precision Farming services for sunflower, potatoes and sugarbeet. RapidEye's contributions to these projects include identifying variabilities of biophysical parameters within fields such as nitrogen content and leaf area index.