Humans started to cultivate land around 10 000 years ago, but environmental concerns, sustainability, quotas, subsidies and reporting systems make farming more challenging than ever. Satellites orbiting Earth such as Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel missions and ESA’s SMOS and the upcoming Florescence Explorer provide a wealth of information about growing conditions and crop health that can be used to increase agricultural efficiency. Value-adders can use these measurements to give farmers advice on irrigation, warn them of drought or water stress, and help to improve their crop yield predictions. Here, a tractor is using a variable spraying system – a system that guides the farmer on where and how much to spray or irrigate and a clear example of where information from satellites would benefit the system.