May 23, 2023 | IT Brief Australia |
Australia's SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has launched the Maya Nula research program to develop Australian satellite Earth Observation (EO) capability to advance the country's agriculture industry. Maya Nula aims to create an agricultural intelligence capability from space to help farmers reduce risk and boost productivity through environmentally friendly processes. SmartSat will develop projects to deliver a measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) tool for communicating sustainable farming practices on soil health, crop conditions, biosecurity, and the environment. The program will use space assets combined with on-ground sensor technology to monitor crops and develop sophisticated prediction models for commercial outcomes and environmental protection. The SmartSat CRC, with over 100 national and international partners, is focused on contributing to the Australian government's goal of tripling the size of the space sector to $12 billion and creating up to 20,000 jobs by 2030, with priority sectors including agriculture.