In California, Stanford University researchers used high resolution photographs from compact satellites and a computer based model to accurately estimate farm production in Kenya, a region that has been difficult to gather data for in the past. Kenya, like many other areas in the African continent, have many small farms, rather than large farms, making it extremely time consuming to visit and survey thousands of family farmers in remote areas to collect agricultural data.
To ensure their high resolution photos were accurate, researchers conducted time intensive field collection as well, thanks to company Terra Bella who donated the services. The field surveys confirmed that their high resolution photos accurately estimated agricultural productivity. They hope to use their high resolution imagery and computer-based crop models for other regions of Africa where data collection is challenging in order to improve agricultural productivity predictions.