Farmers depend on successful harvests to fulfil their destiny of feeding a hungry world, and they can only do it if they understand the growth and development of their crops and follow correct production practices at the opportune time.

The better a farmer can see what is happening on his lands and how his crops are faring, the more accurately and timeously can he make decisions to ensure healthy and bountiful harvests. For that watchful eye on his/her investment, Bonavide is a name that literally means “watch carefully” and provides a crop monitoring system as an affordable option to the farmer that enables him/her to interpret the condition of plants accurately.

It does not matter what you grow, Bonavide employs satellite and drone photo images that enables the farmer to analyse the condition of his lands periodically by comparing the differences between plant development on two different images on varying dates. The colour of the images tell you what the condition of your crops is, whether there are only certain areas where it will be worthwhile planting seed, or if you perhaps require additional fertilisation for a certain area. To crown it all, it is an elementary and affordable system.

“We show the farmer on his farm where the problem areas lie,” says Dr Andries Leuschner of Bonavide. “The various colours on the images show you what is happening – the greener, the healthier; yellow is a problem area and red means nothing is growing in that locality – it could be a rocky zone, for example.”

Bonavide employs a qualified and licensed drone pilot who can fly the drone over the farmer’s land, even between the trees, if it is difficult to inspect the land from the air. A weekly report is submitted that indicates the status of the farmer’s crops three days or less ago. This report enables the farmer and his fertiliser companies to make informed decisions and make timeous adjustments

The Bonavide satellite monitoring option

• Medium resolution:

Satellite images of 10 metres per image element (pixel) may be downloaded free of charge from the internet. They utilise data from Sentinel-satellites and published formulae to calculate indexes which summarise the health status of the farmer’s crops. The Sentinel satellite system has a revisiting period of five days. This means that Bonavide can, during favourable weather conditions, supply a weekly report on the health status of your crops. The data of this resolution is available free of charge and the farmer only pays for the determination of location, downloading and processing, and interpretation of the data.

• High resolution

Sattelite images of 0,3 to 0,5 m/image element is available on request. These images can be ordered with a minimum order of 10 000 hectares and are consequently suitable for big farms.

• RPAS-monitoring (very high resolution)

Drone photo images of van 0,08 m/image element are available depending on the application. Drone monitoring is more expensive than satellite images because the service has to be rendered in loco by a qualified drone pilot. Drone photo images have to overlap 80% to allow for accurate stitching of the photographs taken during the flight. This service is arranged on request. The price depends on the resolution required, as well as the degree of overlapping of the flights.

It is easy to join Bonavide – all you have to do, is the following:

1. Register on the website: www.bonavide.com
2. Follow the instructions and fill in the coordinates of your lands by using Google Maps.
3. Submit this information, together with the other requested information regarding intended crops and required services.
4. On registration a free satellite report of the previous growing season will be e-mailed. Use the report to verify that your lands have been correctly identified.
5. Join for the new growing season.
6. Activate the monitoring program at the germinating phase.

For more information, contact Bert Ubbink on 012-543-2758 or send him an email to enquiries@bonavide.com .You can also visit the website: www.bonavide.com.

Satellite monitoring service starts at R1 500 for the first 100 ha and after that R1,50/ha per season, which ensures seven reports. Should Bonavide not be able to provide seven reports, the farmer will be remunerated on a pro-rata basis. The price of the drone service is available on request.