National Association of State Departments of Agriculture CEO Ted McKinney and NASDA staff recently visited the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to learn how satellite technology supports agricultural monitoring and strengthens the need for agricultural data collection.
NASA’s Earth-observing satellites, including Landsat, MODIS and SMAP provide critical insights throughout the growing season. Landsat monitors planted fields and crop conditions, MODIS captures daily images for yield analysis and SMAP tracks soil moisture. By integrating these images with data collected by NASDA enumerators in the field, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service now produces more accurate statistics and timely reports on national agricultural productivity.
For example, the Cropland Data Layer precisely maps where crops are grown, bolstering production reports, while Crop Progress and Condition Reports offer real-time insights into crop health, soil moisture and drought conditions. These data products enable farmers, researchers and policymakers to make well-informed decisions.
Since 1972, the NASDA-NASS partnership has employed enumerators nationwide to collect high-quality data that gives farmers and ranchers a voice in shaping the future of U.S. agriculture and rural communities. Merging this on-the-ground field data with NASA’s state-of-the-art satellite imagery has significantly improved NASS’s ability to predict crop yields and monitor environmental conditions.
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