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Sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) is the most widely grown plant in the world, with an annual production volume of more than 1,3 billion tonnes (FAO 2004) covering more than 20 million hectares throughout the tropical zone. Sugar cane is a perennial grass, which is grown on any one plot for 5 to 6 consecutive years following which, once the yield drops sharply, the field is replanted with new shoots. The annual harvest is done when the cane reaches its maximum sugar content. The stem is cut flush with the ground and the stump is left in place to grow new shoots. The harvest is a crucial stage, which requires very efficient logistics, since the cane has to be ground as quickly as possible (within 48 hours at most).

Download the sheet "Supporting Production Managment" (pdf - 1.37 M)

Home > Applications > Agriculture > Monitoring Sugar Cane

System for monitoring sugar cane by means of remote sensing

Requirements

The different stakeholders in the sugar cane sector require precise, up-to-date information throughout their crop year:

Planters try to improve the quality of the crop by increasing yields while at the same time dosing the fertilizers precisely in order to prevent pollution of the soil. They need tools to enable them to visualize a drawing of their farm including information for each plot or each management unit: agronomical data, crop growth stages, detection of moisture stress and phytosanitary problems, yield estimates, etc.

The industrial producers and food processing plants are specially concerned by the harvest period, which covers several months. In order to manage the harvest and optimise costs, they need precise maps and knowledge of cultivated land areas and data on how the harvesting campaign is evolving, as well as yield estimates.
Finally, local authorities and professional organisations are interested in sugar cane acreage, both with respect to surface areas under cultivation (for annual agriculture cartography and statistics) and to crop growth stages.

Objective

The objective of the Sucrette project is to develop a tool for providing support for production management of sugar cane by using remote sensing to:

build a database describing the area under sugar cane, including field sizes and limits, descriptive attributes, etc.
develop information products for monitoring production: stages of growth, intra and inter-parcel heterogeneity diagnostics, yield forecasts, evolution of cut areas,
provide tools for visualising and distributing cartographic information

The Actors

The CIRAD, a French agronomical research organisation, whose mission is to promote sustainable development of tropical and subtropical countries, and which is the principal scientific investigator for the project. Two of its departments are involved: the CIRAD-AMIS and its geomatics laboratory, which is specialised in the agronomy of tropical regions and the CIRAD-CA, whose sugar cane programme has been widely adopted in French overseas departments.
Spot Image, which is in charge of marketing and supplying satellite data
The MSIRI, a scientific partner of the project, which is in charge of analysing requirements and validating the system developed
The CTICS and the DDAF in Reunion and Guadeloupe, the Chambers of Agriculture at Grande-Terre and Marie-Galante, the sugar cane cooperatives in Guadeloupe (UDCAG, Sicama, Cuma Progres, Cuma Alliance), the sugar factories and complexes in Guadeloupe (Gardel S.A., SA SRGM), Reunion (Sucrière de La Réunion) and Mauritius (Belle-Vue, Medine Sugar Estate), which are project users.
The Sucrette project is being financed by the ‘Earth and Space’ Network for Technological Research and Innovation.

The solution

The proposed method is based on knowledge of the fields on which sugar cane is cultivated, acquired by means of VHR images and on monitoring of crop growth stages and harvesting campaigns using frequently repeated SPOT images.
The system, which has been developed is a dedicated computer tool for production management of sugar cane, designed for users, who are not specialists in geomatics. The tool makes it possible to distribute the information gathered to all stakeholders in the sugar sector.

Description of project

Sites studied

3 pilot sites were investigated:

a sugar cane area on Reunion Island with small sugar cane fields
an industrial plantation on the Island of Mauritius
a mixed system in Guadeloupe

The different rates of growth in the northern and southern hemispheres have made it possible to develop, validate and test the reproducibility of products and the relevance of tools under different conditions and for a limited period (project duration: 2 years).





Guadeloupe

Updating of field data base

A VHR image (IKONOS, QuickBird or SPOT 5) acquired at the beginning of the project is used to precisely determine the limits of the sugar cane fields. For Guadeloupe, a QuickBird colour image with a resolution of 70 cm was used.

Multitemporal Acquisition of SPOT images

10 m or 20 m colour SPOT images were acquired during the project:

For Guadeloupe and Reunion Island, 1 to 2 images were acquired every two months during the period of growth and 1 to 2 per month during harvesting.
For Mauritius Island, 1 image was acquired every 2 months in order to study the inter and intra-field heterogeneity and to estimate yields.

Development of a dedicated tool

The system developed is simple, robust and dedicated to management of sugar cane production.
It can easily be used by people who are not specialized in geomatics and provides information throughout the crop year. The operators make cartographic and statistical products and can transmit them by Internet or distribute them in other ways (by fax, regular mail or on CD-roms) to end-users, such as: sector managers, planters, food processing plant managers, local authorities, etc.

The tool offers the following functions:

Management of field data
This first module is used to digitise the fields by means of VHR data acquired or by integrating field files from another G.I.S.
Changes in sugar cane fields for the area can be taken into account at any time.
Monitoring the crop
Using the maps and illustrations, which come with the module, the user can:
- detect possible anomalies in growth such as disease, drought and weeds, by means of inter and intra-field heterogeneity maps,
- detect the beginning of shooting and maturing phases based on plant growth maps.
Monitoring cut areas
This module is used to visualize maturity maps. The date at which the harvest can begin can be deduced field by field. The maps of cut areas reveal harvested fields and those, which are still being cultivated.
Yield forecasting
This function is based on a sugar cane growth model - NDVI at different dates, showing the age of the plant, the date of planting, the dates and amount of irrigation – and meteorological data. On the farm scale, forecast yields are displayed for each field in the form of maps.

Practical results

The Sucrette project has successfully validated production management for all stakeholders in the sugar cane sector.

This study led to the development of an operational system, based on the generation of 4 production management support tools. These enable:

creating and updating the field data base
monitoring cut areas and ploughed areas
inter-field variability
intra-field variability

The results obtained with these 4 tools as well as the observations of potential users (sugar manufacturers, planters, committees for managing and monitoring harvesting) during the presentation of results for the 3 sites investigated have shown that:

the information provided is practical and relevant,
the proposed means of distribution match user needs for quick access to information,
the products obtained are reliable and the method used during the Sucrette study can be reproduced as a generic offer to provide an actual service as of 2005.

Outlook

On the basis of Sucrette results, Spot Image and its partners are offering dedicated services and products for all stakeholders in the sugar cane sector: planters, cooperatives, food processing plant managers, insurers, local authorities, professional organisations, added-value operators and sub-contractors.
The simplicity and modularity of the proposed products mean that Spot Image can offer turnkey solutions, which can be managed locally and adapted to the specific needs of each region and each type of plantation.

Moreover, Spot Image and Cirad are continuing their research work and development in the field of sugar cane production management in order to round out the range of products, which have already been developed and validated.

Several new operational tools should be available shortly, such as for:

detecting anomalies in growth
determining the maturing period
estimating yields

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