The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Problem: Often, rainfall is not enough for crop production, and we must bring in water artificially. Across Europe, the agricultural industry is using more and more water for irrigation. But with the climate changing and populations growing, we are seeing rainfall decreasing and production increasing in many regions. We need a solution to support farmers to irrigate their crops efficiently.
ESA-backed solution: A project supported by ESA Space Solutions called ClimField developed a service that uses Earth observation satellite data to help farmers make decisions related to irrigation and water management.
The project, which ran from February 2020 to November 2021, was carried out by WASAT, a Polish company aiming to provide geoinformation services and IT solutions based on satellite data. ClimField used Copernicus data – mainly imagery from the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 satellites, as well as Copernicus Land Monitoring Service land cover maps and a Digital Elevation Model – to help farmers in Poland find out whether to irrigate their fields, how much water to use, and which parts of the farm need water most.