Seeing Beyond the Field: How Disagro® Is Revolutionizing Agriculture in Latin America
PlanetScope image of agricultural fields near San Carlos, Brazil, captured February 7, 2021. © 2021 Planet Labs PBC. All Rights Reserved.
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In agriculture, every field tells a story. But what if you could read those stories from the sky, in real-time, week by week? For farmers across Central America, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador, this is no longer a futuristic vision. It’s a reality, thanks to a powerful partnership between Disagro® and Planet.
Disagro®, a leading agricultural company, has built its AgritecGEO® ecosystem to help farmers in the LATAM market see the "invisible" in their crops. By combining decades of agronomic expertise with cutting-edge satellite monitoring, they are transforming how farmers prioritize work, manage resources, and make data-driven decisions.
But like any good story, this one has a plot twist: the unpredictable weather in regions like Nicaragua, where relentless cloud cover can blind optical satellites for days on end — a problem Disagro® solved by integrating Planet’s unique satellite data into their AgritecGEO® platform.
The Challenge of Cloud Cover
While satellite imagery offers valuable insights, frequent cloud cover in tropical and subtropical regions can create significant data gaps. A farmer might need to assess crop health in a crucial moment, only to find the view obscured by a blanket of clouds. This lack of consistent, timely information introduces uncertainty and can delay critical decisions about irrigation, fertilization, or pest control.
To solve this, Disagro® needed a data source that could offer not just high resolution, but also high reliability.
The Solution: A Multidimensional Approach With Planet Data
Disagro's AgritecGEO® ecosystem leverages Planet's high-frequency data to deliver a trifecta of capabilities: Satellite Monitoring, Change Detection, and the innovative Biomass Proxy.
1. Satellite Monitoring — Your Weekly Crop Report from Orbit
Disagro® uses Planet imagery to monitor crop vegetation indices — like NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) — and their changes over time. These indices are correlated with the crop's nutritional status, health, and yield potential. This isn’t just a static picture; it's a dynamic, weekly report that helps farmers:
- Reduce uncertainty about crop conditions
- Detect areas of stress (nutritional, water, or health-related)
- Prioritize which parts of the farm need immediate attention
- Visualize the effectiveness of their agronomic actions, from fertilization to pest management
2. Change Detection — More Than a Photo, It's a Story
One of the most powerful features Disagro® offers is change detection analysis. By comparing satellite images from different dates, AgritecGEO® visually highlights areas where a crop’s vegetation index has improved or declined. This is made possible by Planet’s consistent data capture, which provides the imagery needed for these critical comparisons. This helps farmers quickly understand the impact of their management practices.
For example, after applying fertilizer, a farmer can see exactly where the crop has responded positively and where it has not. This allows for hyper-targeted, corrective actions, saving time, money, and resources. Instead of treating an entire field, they can focus only on the specific areas that need help.
3. Biomass Proxy — Beating the Clouds With Radar
For regions with high cloud cover, Disagro® implemented a truly innovative solution: Biomass Proxy. This tool fuses multispectral data from Planet with radar information from other sources to generate a biomass index.
This proxy allows farmers to get daily information on their crop's vegetative development, even when optical imagery is unavailable. Disagro® used this to identify a high correlation between initial growth and final yield, proving its value.
In a recent study with Inversiones San José, a rice company in Nicaragua, Disagro’s Biomass Proxy was instrumental. It revealed that farms irrigated with low-salinity river water had greater vegetative development than those using high-salinity well water. This insight allowed the company to adjust irrigation strategies and ultimately led to higher yields. The farms with the highest initial biomass proxy values were also the ones with the highest final yields.
Crop Biomass implemented by AgritecGEO.
A Vision for the Future
For Disagro®, success is about helping their customers achieve efficient, profitable, and sustainable agricultural production. Planet high-resolution, up-to-date satellite data is a core component of this vision. It allows them to provide actionable insights, anticipate risks, and optimize the use of inputs.
Disagro's AgritecGEO® ecosystem is a testament to how the fusion of expert knowledge and accessible space data can unlock a new level of intelligence for agriculture. By seeing beyond the field and into the data, farmers are making smarter decisions and building a more resilient future.
Interested in seeing more examples of Planet customers using our data and solutions? Explore our customer case studies.
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