TEHRAN -- According to a recent agreement signed between the Iranian Space Research Center and the Ministry of Agriculture, remote sensing satellites are planned to be used in different sections of the agricultural industry, Mehr reported on Wednesday.

The two sides signed an agreement in January 2018 in order to boost their cooperation in different fields of research and operation.

The center has compiled a great knowledge in different fields of agriculture, which can be offered in different sections of the industry, the head of Iranian Space Research Center Hossein Samimi said.

By using satellite data in promoting agriculture, the public can believe the role of space technology in everyday life of people, he explained.

The center already provided a map of cultivated area, which provides more than 95 percent of national rice market in five provinces, he added.

“We plan to provide information for other products wheat, barley and potatoes to estimate their production nationwide,” he said.

The space-based business and startups can give consult to farmers in order to modify their cropping pattern and farm management, which leads to improvement of their harvest and increase its quality.  

However, the startups need some meteorological data as well as some information provided by drones for their services and the government can lay infrastructure for them to use these data.

Some startups in Iran have recently been launched providing services for farmers with some space-based data on meteorology and smart agriculture.

SB/MQ/MG