Enhancing Agricultural Resilience, Enabling Scalable Sustainability, and 

Ensuring Food Security through Space-based Earth Observations

National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group

Climate and Societal Benefits Subcommittee

December 1, 2023

The content of this paper reflects the thoughts and opinions of the subcommittee’s authors 

and should not be construed as a recommendation of the full National Space Council Users’ 

Advisory Group or the official policy of the United States Government, the National Space 

Council, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This paper solely provides 

background information and context for findings or recommendations that were developed 

for submission to the National Space Council Office for consideration. This paper does not 

presume that any action will be taken.
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Enhancing Agricultural Resilience, Enabling Scalable Sustainability, and Ensuring Food Security through 

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Purpose

Space-based Earth Observations (EOs) are an essential public resource and play a critical role in 

visualization, real-time measurement, and monitoring of the changing planet. However, 

monitoring these changes is not enough. The U.S. and the global Space Observation community 

need to move at greater speed and scale to mitigate and adapt to climate change and concomitant 

biodiversity loss while ensuring our ability to meet the demands of an ever-increasing population. 

Government operated EO satellite data are released as a ‘public good’ in an ‘open data’ format. 

This is an excellent starting point, but these data are limited in scope, difficult to use without expert 

knowledge, expert systems, and often inaccessible to some users who might otherwise benefit.

Near-term opportunities exist to further EO applications for scalable solutions that provide societal 

benefit to address the challenges of climate change in high-impact areas such as agriculture, food 

security, wildfires, greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring and reduction, and water resource 

management. 

The paper highlights agriculture as a use case to explore the applications and current challenges 

surrounding wide-scale utilization EO. While EO holds promise for many applications, including 

the aforementioned, there are multiple challenges identified by this Users’ Advisory Group (UAG)

subcommittee that must be addressed to fully realize EO’s potential to address these challenges 

and the impact of climate change. These include data quality, data accessibility, the need for 

additional information to contextualize EO insights, mission continuity/resilience, and institutional 

barriers that limit innovation.

Background

Agriculture plays a pivotal role in sustaining global societies and economies by providing essential 

resources like food, fuel, fiber, and feed. However, this sector faces an unprecedented challenge: 

the need to fortify itself against geopolitical upheaval, pandemic driven supply chain shock, and 

the impacts of climate change. It is anticipated that climate change impact will reduce arable land 

per capita, while evolving consumption patterns of a growing global population will contribute 

greater stress.1

The importance of the agricultural sector has become undeniable in global efforts to reduce GHG 

emissions to reach climate targets. While atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are often at the 

forefront of discussions on climate change, the contributions of other GHGs, including methane 

(CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), also need to be taken into account considering their global greater 

warming potential (~28x and ~273x, respectively) than CO2 over a 100-year timescale.2 

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)3, 22% of the total 

1https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/climate-smart-agriculture

2https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_SummaryForPolicymakers.pdf

3https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_SummaryForPolicymakers.pdf
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Enhancing Agricultural Resilience, Enabling Scalable Sustainability, and Ensuring Food Security through 

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NSpC UAG Climate and Societal Benefits Subcommittee

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anthropogenic emissions derive from Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU). If 

emissions from pre- and post-production activities in the global food system are also included, 

the emissions are estimated to be up to 37% of total net anthropogenic GHG emissions.4

Agriculture both contributes to and holds the potential to mitigate global anthropogenic GHGs.5

Implementing sustainable farming techniques, such as cover cropping, conservation tillage and 

other climate-smart practices can sequester carbon, enhance soil health, improve water usage, and 

reduce CO2, N2O, CH4 emissions. 

6,7 Balancing the emissions generated by agricultural activities 

with these mitigation strategies is essential for fostering more sustainable and resilient food 

production systems.

In the context of global agriculture and the broader agri-food system, EO is a critical enabling 

technology to provide necessary solutions that consider major challenges (e.g., climate change, 

pandemic, etc.) faced today by aiding in improving land use, labor efficiency, and increasing

agricultural output in a sustaining, regenerative manner. EO can improve supply chain 

optimization, resiliency, and loss reduction; promote more sustainable resource management and 

traceability; enable new kinds of farming technologies; and facilitate resilience to climate change 

via accurate early warning systems and enabling more affordable insurance and credit programs 

(especially for small holder farmers).8 EO tools can also help derive better understanding of the 

complexity and interaction of agriculture and natural resource utilization and impacts (e.g., water 

resources, biodiversity, and land use change).

While precision agriculture tools are often associated with large farming operations, space-based 

EO can also benefit-small holder (<10 acre) farmers (SHFs). In this application, EO can offer 

SHFs (as well as farmer groups, governments, and development organizations like nongovernmental organizations [NGOs]) the access to new insights and information that enable more 

efficient practices, the ability to compare crop production in relation to land/water resources in an 

unbiased, consistent, and scalable manner and overall system resiliency.9 While access to digital 

technology is hampered by cost, lack of infrastructure, and low connectivity & coverage, EO 

systems and solutions can be utilized by tooling that is tailored for this kind of access and made 

user friendly for non-technical audiences. A recent example is the Integrated Rice Advisory 

System (IRAS)--a joint project between NASA and the University of Washington-- that sends 

SMS messages to SMHs in Bangladesh with guidance on optimizing water usage.10 More broadly, 

4https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2020/02/SPM_Updated-Jan20.pdf

5https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_SummaryForPolicymakers.pdf

6Syswerda, S. P., Corbin, A. T., Mokma, D. L., Kravchenko, A. N., & Robertson, G. P. (2011). Agricultural 

management and soil carbon storage in surface vs. deep layers. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 75(1), 92-

101.

7McNunn, G., Karlen, D. L., Salas, W., Rice, C. W., Mueller, S., Muth Jr, D., & Seale, J. W. (2020). Climate smart 

agriculture opportunities for mitigating soil greenhouse gas emissions across the US Corn-Belt. Journal of cleaner 

production, 268, 122240.

8https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/736211/6.4502_

UKSA_SPACEUK_Solutions_for_Agriculture_220818_CMYK_web.pdf

9https://blogs.worldbank.org/digital-development/sky-not-limit-satellites-support-smallholder-farming-part-1

10https://www.space.com/scientists-texting-water-conservation-advice-bangladesh-farmers-nasa-satellite
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SERVIR, a joint initiative with NASA and USAID uses EO data to inform decision making at 

local, national, and regional scales in five hubs in the Global South.11 With the slogan of 

“connecting space to the village,” SERVIR focuses on promoting not only food security and 

resilience but extends the applications of EO to address “critical challenges in climate change, food 

security, water and related disasters, land use, and air quality.”12 

Precision and Climate-Smart Agriculture

EO enables visualization, monitoring, measurement, analysis, and forecasting of critical 

environmental factors such as weather patterns, water availability, vegetation cover, and GHG 

emissions that influence or can be impacted by agricultural systems.13 Beyond the near- and longterm characterization of environmental influences, EO data provides the foundation for optimized 

agriculture through the development of precision agriculture tools that allow farmers to monitor 

the health of their crops in near real-time, allowing for early detection of pests, disease pressures 

and supporting targeted management strategies, enable the automation and scaling of farm 

production, and allow farmers to take the best decision possible to insure the best outcome.14 EOsupported insights provide opportunities for farmers to adopt more site-specific management and 

activities tailored to specific field conditions, crops, and environments. For instance, EO data can 

guide precise planting, irrigation scheduling, pesticide application and documentation, minimizing 

environmental impacts and maximizing yields.15 

Digital tools for nitrogen (N) scripting currently exist and are based on yield maps or vegetation 

indices from EO (e.g., normalized difference vegetation index; NDVI) and may allow for in-season 

monitoring of crop N status and thus more precise applications. However, these tools also have 

variable levels of uncertainty which affects user uptake in terms of risk tolerance (potential yield 

loss) and ease of use. Enhancements in EO technology with new satellites, sensors, and computing 

power (as discussed below) can help mitigate these pain points by enabling the next generation of 

N-management tools. Given that fertilizer application is a significant source of N2O emissions in 

agriculture16, enhanced digital agriculture tools for N management, combined with other 

agricultural advancements such as crops with increased nitrogen utilization efficiency, and 

microbial treatments can work together to enhance farmer adoption of climate-smart N 

management.

11https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/index.html

12https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/overview.html

13https://nasaharvest.org/news/space-farm-how-earth-observation-technologies-are-revolutionizing-global-agrifood-systems

14https://nasaharvest.org/news/space-farm-how-earth-observation-technologies-are-revolutionizing-global-agrifood-systems

15Sishodia, R. P., Ray, R. L., & Singh, S. K. (2020). Applications of remote sensing in precision agriculture: A 

review. Remote Sensing, 12(19), 3136.

16https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data
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These types of data-driven insights allow farmers to conserve resources and minimize [food] loss 

while optimizing their farm and land’s productivity in a sustaining manner.17 Further, EO can 

support initiatives promoting sustainable land management practices by monitoring changes in 

land use, including degradation and restoration efforts.18

With the proliferation of EO data and technologies, government regulators are now able to pass 

new rules and legislation to support more sustainable agriculture practices. The recent European 

Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires companies trading in six commodities to 

conduct diligence in their supply chain to ensure the goods do not result from recent deforested 

land and EO data will be the central source of data for compliance.

The U.S. Congress is currently debating reauthorization of the Farm Bill, an omnibus, multiyear 

law that governs an array of agricultural and food programs. Among the many issues congress will 

consider in the Farm Bill is how to incentivize the development and deployment of digital 

technologies to enable farmers to increase production and improve sustainability. 

Several bi-partisan bills have been introduced this year to foster precision agriculture and help 

fund and deploy digital technologies and broadband. Examples include H.R. 1339, the Precision 

Agriculture Satellite Connectivity Act and S. 734, the Promoting Precision Agriculture Act to help 

facilitate further adoption of precision agriculture technology. 

These bills provide models and show pathways on how government can support and improve the 

access and utilization of technologies to serve a broader group, often empowering the private sector 

as a key driver to build digital applications.

Earth observation not only can play an innovative role in verifying the adoption of sustainable 

agriculture practices and emission reduction efforts, but it can be argued is a critical component to 

scale these activities and benefits. Adoption of practices such as cover crops and conservation 

tillage at scale require EO to play a role in documentation of practice adoption and quantification 

of carbon sequestration.19,20 These practices are the core elements in the creation of agri-centric 

carbon credits/offsets.21 Carbon credits (in both voluntary and compliance markets) are certified 

through registries and 3rd party verification companies which have established standards and 

17https://www.aem.org/news/the-environmental-benefits-of-precision-agriculture-quantified

18Karra, K., Kontgis, C., Statman-Weil, Z., Mazzariello, J. C., Mathis, M., & Brumby, S. P. (2021, July). Global 

land use/land cover with Sentinel 2 and deep learning. In 2021 IEEE international geoscience and remote sensing 

symposium IGARSS (pp. 4704-4707). IEEE.

19Thieme, A., Yadav, S., Oddo, P. C., Fitz, J. M., McCartney, S., King, L., ... & Hively, W. D. (2020). Using NASA 

Earth observations and Google Earth Engine to map winter cover crop conservation performance in the Chesapeake 

Bay watershed. Remote Sensing of Environment, 248, 111943.

20Wang, S., Guan, K., Zhang, C., Zhou, Q., Wang, S., Wu, X., ... & Ma, Z. (2023). Cross-scale sensing of field-level 

crop residue cover: Integrating field photos, airborne hyperspectral imaging, and satellite data. Remote Sensing of 

Environment, 285, 113366.

21https://verra.org/methodologies/vm0042-methodology-for-improved-agricultural-land-management-v2-0/
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protocols for quality and traceability.22 The methodologies to measure, monitor, report and verify 

(MMRV) GHG assertions are prescriptive and both labor and cost intensive (e.g., field 

sampling).23 The effort to ensure compliance with these requirements is a deterrent for farmers to 

engage in adopting climate-smart practices and unlocking additional profits that could be realized 

from ‘carbon farming.’24 The academic community, governments, and private sector technology 

providers have recognized these hurdles prompting increased research and development of 

‘alternative’ MMRV platforms utilizing EO solutions as these technologies, (when combined with 

appropriate model and ground-truth data) offer the opportunity for unbiased, cost effective, and 

relatively accurate assessment and tracking of climate-smart initiatives. The U.S. Government 

(USG) Greenhouse Gas Monitoring & Measurement Interagency Working Group recently released 

a draft report outlining a framework for MMRV and removals for the agriculture and forest sectors 

and identified EO as a research priority "to identify activities (e.g., tillage) and/or estimate 

environmental variables (e.g., burned areas) critical to GHG estimates. EO data can also measure 

quantities such as surface soil moisture, which can inform and enhance estimates of GHG 

fluxes.”25 This low-touch verification process is critical for assessing the adoption and ensuring 

the effectiveness of such practices at a global scale. Additionally, a globally scalable EO approach 

can facilitate wider adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices by removing some of the costly 

barriers to MMRV, allowing farmers to maximize financial incentives for such practices.

Technology Enhancements

To address the challenges posed by climate change and our growing population, it is imperative to 

advance innovative approaches to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability. In this 

context, the utilization of EO technology, coupled with advancements in cloud computing and data 

fusion techniques, has enabled new forms of digital centric tools and solutions that have utterly 

transformed agriculture. These solutions have been game-changers enabling the scaling of 

agriculture through improved efficiency and industrialization while being more sustainable (more 

with less). EO has become not just a luxury but a necessary utility to enable and allow 

modern/current farming. Further advancements to improve the frequency of observations and 

spatial scale, such as satellites in constellations, will be critical to drive the accessibility and 

scalability of agricultural applications. Novel satellite constellations, such as those from 

commercial providers like Planet, collect higher-resolution imagery more frequently compared to 

traditional satellite missions making them particularly beneficial for precision agriculture 

applications.26

22https://www.card.iastate.edu/products/publications/pdf/22pb37.pdf

23https://www.card.iastate.edu/products/publications/pdf/22pb37.pdf

24https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2021/695482/IPOL_STU(2021)695482_EN.pdf

25https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Draft-Federal-Ag-and-Forest-MMRV-Strategy.pdf

26Mulla, D. J. (2021). Satellite remote sensing for precision agriculture. Sensing Approaches for Precision Agriculture, 

19-57.
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While EO data from optical sensors has traditionally been used for agricultural applications, 

multispectral, hyperspectral (including sun-induced fluorescence) and similar advanced nonoptical EO technologies will drive the next generation of agriculture solutions, services, and 

technologies, including those that are critical to the measurement and implementation of 

sustainable agriculture practices.27 More recently, platforms initially developed for nonagriculture uses, such as the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lasers aboard the 

International Space Station (ISS), have been used in conjunction with more traditional optical 

sensors to enhance applicability to agricultural applications.28 Satellite constellations can be 

integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) devices and networks on the ground to create a more

comprehensive data ecosystem for agriculture. This integrated approach offers a holistic view of 

agricultural systems, enabling farmers to make data-driven decisions and automate various farm 

operations. 

Accessibility

While the private sector continues to develop and bring to market new innovations, such as EO for 

carbon MMRV, limitations still exist due to the prohibitive cost. Three of the most significant 

advancements in agriculture over the past three decades have been the provision of free/near-free 

access to public satellite imagery, Global Positioning System (GPS), and Soil Survey Geographic 

Database (SSURGO) data, leading to innovations like precision agriculture tools.29,30 Providing 

higher resolution publicly available EO data will be invaluable for the accessibility and 

development of cost-effective carbon MMRV and more refined digital agriculture tools.

To realize the societal benefits of EO applications more fully in high-impact areas such as 

agriculture, and to drive broader and more equitable access of EO data, governments and space 

agencies can adopt open data policies, supporting EO data as a public utility. By promoting open 

access, innovators, researchers, and farmers can better utilize EO data to develop fresh solutions

for agriculture. Establishing common standards and formats can ensure interoperability, allowing 

user communities to access and integrate data from diverse sources. Likewise, user-friendly 

interfaces, visualization tools, and application programming interfaces (APIs) can enable nonexpert users to effectively access and interact with the data and develop innovative solutions 

tailored to the needs of farmers at local and regional scales.

Encouraging collaboration between space agencies, technology companies, research institutions, 

and agricultural stakeholders can also promote the development of innovative solutions. Publicprivate partnerships can drive the integration of EO data with other datasets, such as weather 

27Mulla, D. J. (2021). Satellite remote sensing for precision agriculture. Sensing Approaches for Precision 

Agriculture, 19-57.

28Stefania Di Tommaso et al 2021 Environ. Res. Lett. 16 125002

29https://www.gps.gov/applications/agriculture/#:~:text=The%20accuracy%20of%20GPS%20allows,samples%20or

%20monitor%20crop%20conditions

30https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/fabe-55204
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information or ground-based sensor data, to provide trusted standards to power novel digital 

applications for agriculture. 

Climate change, the drive to reduce GHG emissions, biodiversity loss, fragile supply chains, and 

a growing population have placed new pressures on our agricultural systems. Considering these 

headwinds, the development of innovative technologies, applications, and approaches that can 

contribute to sustainable farming practices, increased productivity, and improved resource 

management are critical. Making space based EO data more accessible and usable and the 

concurrent advancements like increased frequency, resolution, and sensors (e.g., hyperspectral) 

will drive the next generation of ag solutions at a global scale. Capitalizing on new/evolving 

technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, improved computing, and cheap 

storage capable of ingesting more data will allow users to leverage EO from a variety of sources 

(e.g., NASA missions, ESA missions, private constellations). The combination will provide not 

only new insights but ensure that EO-based insights are used to their fullest potential. 

Specific Challenges and Considerations 

While EO holds promise for agricultural applications, there are challenges identified by this 

subcommittee that must be addressed to fully realize its potential to address the challenges of 

climate change. These include data quality/ accessibility, the need for additional information to 

contextualize EO insights, and institutional barriers that limit innovation. 

Findings and Recommendations of the Subcommittee: 

1. The EO is vital: Space-based Earth observations (EO) play a critical role in real-time 

measurement and monitoring of the changing planet.

2. Monitoring is not enough: The US and the global community need to move at greater 

speed and scale to mitigate and adapt to climate change to improve our resiliency.

3. We can do more: Near-term opportunities exist to further EO application for societal 

benefits in high-impact areas such as agriculture, wildfires, greenhouse gas monitoring 

and reduction, and water resources.

Considering the critical need for agriculture to perform under the challenges of climate change and 

the potential the EO must enable insights and tools for more sustainable and resilient agricultural 

systems, the recommendations in the following four pages should be adopted to address Climate 

and Societal Benefits:
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Recommendation 1: Earth Information and Action Lead (EIAL)

Finding: 

• The demand for Earth-related information products has increased significantly 

demonstrating the vital role that space-based EO play in the Nation’s ability to understand, 

respond, and prepare for climate-related and other societal challenges.

Recommendation: 

• To establish an over-arching leadership role within the National Security Council to assess, 

prioritize, and guide the Nation’s multi-agency EO effort along with consideration of 

private sector capabilities for the purpose of accelerating and improving environmental 

information and action promoting greater resiliency.

Rationale for Recommendation:

• The urgency and complexity of climate change and its importance to our national interests 

demands new thinking and approaches. USG EO efforts are spread across several agencies 

and guided by different missions, priorities, subject areas, science versus operations 

frameworks, budget structures, planning processes, private sector engagement 

mechanisms, and end users. For the U.S. to strengthen this critical capability, maximize its 

multi-billion-dollar annual investment, and capitalize on rapidly-emerging private sector 

offerings, an over-arching leadership position is needed to guide and advance this national 

effort.

Consequences of No Action on the Recommendation:

• The U.S. will fail to meet the information needs of government organizations, businesses, 

and citizens who require the best, most timely, thorough, trusted environmental insights to 

guide decision making and ensure our national resiliency to adverse events (e.g., climate 

change, pandemics, etc.).
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Recommendation 2: Engagement with the private sector

Finding:

• Applications enable accessibility, and the private sector excels at connecting Americans to 

EO data. However, there are barriers to USG engagement with private and nonprofit users 

on space-based data.

Recommendation:

• The USG should work to streamline applications of EO for societal benefit.

• The Earth Information and Action Lead should leverage existing authorities and 

appropriations to create partnerships that enable public, nonprofit, and commercial 

applications of EO for climate action and societal benefit.

Rationale for Recommendation:

• Mitigation action is not moving with the speed and scale necessary to prevent dangerous 

climate change. 

• The weather enterprise is a model for a partnership that leverages freely available USG 

data, allows private business to add value through interfaces, and provides wider societal 

benefits.

• Other public-private-nonprofit partnerships have emerged to communicate risk and shape 

choices in a changing climate.

• New opportunities exist for the private sector to engage with EO data to drive innovations 

in existing sectors such as agriculture and nascent industries such as carbon management.

Consequences of No Action on the Recommendation:

• The U.S. fails to respond to climate change at the speed and scale required, nascent 

industries will not receive crucial support, and existing industries will not benefit from 

public and private investments in space data.
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Recommendation 3: Modernize data systems

Finding:

• Outdated systems inhibit data discovery and use.

Recommendation:

• The Administration should work across government agencies and missions (NASA, 

NOAA, USGS, DoD, IC) to standardize and require better data architectures, standards and 

interoperability for broader use and more equitable access within the USG, industry, and 

user communities. This process should also identify areas where EO applications can 

digitize workflows and incorporate advanced AI or machine learning methods. 

Rationale for Recommendation:

• It is necessary but not sufficient for data to be “open”; it must also be standardized, 

discoverable, interpretable, and useful. Right now, it is not. 

• Small companies and start-ups have limited access to and time with experts and often 

insufficient resources to do much more than surface the data.

• Advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning are under leveraged in the public 

sector, while insufficient, unreliable, or inaccessible data hamper the private sector’s ability 

to apply these tools.

Consequences of No Action on the Recommendation:

• Inequities will be perpetuated: communities and groups who might benefit from data will 

be unable to access and use it.

• Government and private sector resources that could be put to better use will be wasted on 

accessing and downloading data.
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Recommendation 4: Space data ethics

Finding:

• New capabilities raise new ethics considerations.

Recommendation:

• The National Academies should convene a group to develop a framework for space data 

ethics, as distinct from existing data ethics.

Rationale for Recommendation:

• Existing data ethics frameworks appear ill-equipped to evaluate responsible use of space 

data given different and more diverse data subjects, purposes, interests, risks, etc. Given 

its unusually broad diversity, space data may draw from or inform related fields, such the 

ethics of data, AI, surveillance, intelligence, research, open data, citizen science, and more. 

Because space data may be combined with other data, the synthesis of the two also should 

be examined for new ethics considerations, e.g., if new or special risks can arise.

Consequences of No Action on the Recommendation:

• Without identifying a responsible path forward, we risk both oversharing data that can be 

abused and under sharing data that could benefit us and the world. This can affect our 

national security, economy, and other domestic interests, as well as global interests, such 

as climate change.