Satellite technology to help farmers

Scientists in Israel have developed a way of using satellite images to help farmers detect small-scale changes in climate and improve their harvests, a method that could bolster food supplies for an increasingly hungry world population.

Rather than analyse the weather and topography of large swathes of land, the system divides fields into smaller microclimates that guide farmers on the best way to work each plot.

It tells them when it is best to plant seeds, when to spray pesticides and even which crop is most suitable for each square-kilometre field, said Uri Dayan, a climatologist from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.