Successful finalisation of the ESA GreenerCotton project
How to support Cotton producers to produce more sustainably?
At the beginning of the year, we reported on the current status of the ESA GreenerCotton Project, and a good six months later, this project is coming to an end and there is some interesting news. We would like to take a closer look at the pilots in particular. Before we do that, we will also provide a brief summary of what this project is about and what the current status is.
Final Review of the ESA-supported Greener Cotton Demonstration project
All results were successfully presented and discussed at the final meeting together with the final report documents.
In the following sections, we will give you a more detailed insight into the project, including the marketable products developed and their testing by the pilot partners.
Aim of the project
The GreenerCotton project (funded by ESA under grant number 4000143121/23/NL/FGL) aims at supporting sustainable cotton production through the application of satellite based digital agriculture technology. A comprehensive set of micro services for data capture and validation, cotton mapping, crop growth monitoring, disease risk assessment, yield estimation and sustainability reporting is delivered via API to external IT systems.
Greener Cotton Platform
In the frame of the project, we developed an EO-based platform that can be integrated into external IT systems like Farm Management software or Traceability systems via API:
- Supporting standardisation companies in implementation and certification
- Supporting extension services (field advisory) to implement standards and improve production
Greener Cotton Services
Within Cotton Transparency and Cotton Farming we provide three supporting tools – Sustainability Check, Production Monitor and Cotton Farming.
Read more about them here. In short:
Sustainability Check
This regional risk assessment tool allows to assess the deforestation risk and protected area violation risk in the cotton production region of your ginneries.
On top of the spatial visualization of your cotton production area you can click through maps and reports around these risks and export them as pdf to provide them to ginneries, auditors and other users. You get auditable information, that means a detailed risk assessment at regional level, based on remote sensing data and derived products that can be used as part of your CSDDD or ESRS sustainability reporting.
Geocledian’s Sustainability Check (read more) is a comprehensive and ready-to-use tool for your Sustainability Analysis!
Request a product demonstration: agriculture@geocledian.com
Note: If you are specifically interested in a Deforestation Check e.g. in the context of EUDR, find more information here and/or request an EUDR Check Demonstration: eudr@geocledian.com.
Production Monitor
This dashboard provides an accurate regional overview of crop status and crop per-formance, harvest activities and anomalies of large cotton field portfolios down to the field level.
More infos or:
Request a product demonstration: agriculture@geocledian.com
Cotton Farming
Our API-based cotton field monitoring service can be integrated in any external IT system like Farm Management Systems or Traceability Software. It supports field advisory by offering performance monitoring, alerts and warnings on pest and dis-ease risk and weather events and Sustainability KPIs at field level.
Do you want to know more or are you interested in another crop?
Request a product demonstration: agriculture@geocledian.com
Pilots
To test the feasibility of our Greener Cotton products, we have been able to gain a number of partners who are implementing them in small-scale pilot projects.
AbTF Pilot
Support the implementation of the Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) sustainability standard in Tanzania via analysis of remote sensing data.
Bext360 Sustainable Cotton Monitoring Greece Pilot
Assess sustainability KPIs for BASF’s Certified Sustainable FiberMax (CSF) cotton in Greece by integrating field-level data into Bext360’s traceability platform alongside other agricultural inputs.
Reinhart Crop Assessment Pilot
Improve and support their cotton crop and yield assessment in India by providing the „Production Monitor“ and yield data analysis.
Intrasys Auditing Pilot
Implement, test and audit the new Quality Management procedures in the operational environment of Geocledian. Evaluate the usability of Geocledian pilot services within the downstream cotton market / textile service stakeholder group.
Conclusion
How to support Cotton producers to produce more sustainably? That was the general question we asked ourselves as part of our ESA GreenerCotton project. Now that we have successfully completed the final review meeting, we can proudly say that we are more than just one step closer to the answer. Due to constant learning and adaptation, we also managed to gain quite some market traction and early sales for our GreenerCotton services. The Sustainability Check now enables sustainable cotton labels to investigate their implementation risks regarding protected areas and deforestation at a large scale.
The project started in October 2023 and builds on the ESA Kick-Start GreenerCotton feasibility study 2021. After the FAT/SAT meeting in October 2024 the pilot phase started. The four pilots did allow us to analyze the technical feasibility of multiple service components under real live conditions. In this context the market has been thoroughly analyzed and a sound business plan developed. All the findings have been analyzed and compiled in a comprehensive report.
The Greener Cotton Demonstration project is supported by ESA (European Space Agency).
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