A recently published study has predicted that the global market for Earth observation (EO) for agricultural applications will be worth more than $815-million by 2029. The study, ‘EO4AG – Earth Observation for Agriculture’, was jointly compiled by TerraMetric (an America-domiciled global business development company with specialised agricultural market expertise) and Euroconsult (an international consulting and research company).

The 2029 market prediction represents an about 100% increase over the current value of this market. The main driver of this expansion will be the private sector, enabled by the achievement over the next few years of almost worldwide broadband coverage. However, sales to government agencies will remain significant.

The requirement for much greater EO data will be driven by the development of precision agriculture. But EO will be only one of the technology and service sectors required to implement precision agriculture. “[Precision agriculture] refers to supporting commercial agricultural supply chains by providing Earth observation-based solutions and tools to back farming optimisation processes, as well as research and development initiatives,” said the two companies in their statement. “For precision agriculture to evolve, connectivity will be essential.”

Thus, precision agriculture will also require another space technology, in the form of low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband satellite constellations, as well as technologies such as automated analytics. Including these and other advanced technologies, the total potential precision agriculture support market is forecast in the study to reach more than $4-billion by 2029.

“While the precision agricultural market has made great strides, it has significantly more potential if the right service models and solutions can be found,” pointed out TerraMetric CEO Clint Graumann. “With this research, we aimed at providing Earth observation companies with more clarity as to how the agriculture sector does business while presenting AgTech stakeholders with a holistic assessment of the solutions coming to market in the next ten years.”

“At a time when the advancements in connectivity brought by new [LEO] constellations are poised to transform the precision agriculture market, partnering with TerraMetric has been invaluable for us to be able to provide our clients with a two-folded approach by which we sought to bridge the knowledge gap between the Earth observation community and the AgTech market,” affirmed Euroconsult CEO Pacome Revillon. The study provides comprehensive analyses of agriculture supply chains, competitive environment and the information needs and challenges of agricultural stakeholders. It also reviews the essential technologies, trends in connectivity and changing business models.