Entrepreneurs with an established cadre of talented coders and programmers don’t typically think of farmland when sitting down to dream up new, high-demand tech products. This lack of imagination might be a serious missed opportunity. As the world becomes increasingly focused on its food supply, the development of agricultural data APIs represents a growing industry.
We all know that agriculture has evolved over the centuries and, for the most part, has been the food source and origin of entire civilizations. As the seasons come and go, we continuously discover new crops, soil types, and farming techniques that can be used to enhance crop yields.
After centuries of practicing farming, humankind has come to master the art of agriculture with the help of machinery and data accumulated over the years.
Using Tech to Harness Region-Specific Agricultural Data
However, this data is typically inconsistent when comparing it globally. As a result, some parts of the world do not have the equipment and means to collect high-quality data from their fields, limiting the farmers to traditional farming practices.
In the same vein, for farmers to be able to meet food demand on a global stage, they need unique data that provides them with the knowledge and good practices needed to excel.
And that’s exactly what high-tech data APIs bring to the table. Integrating APIs in farming provides a high-tech solution for solving issues with efficacy, efficiency, and long-term maintenance of the agriculture industry.
Agricultural APIs
Crop Monitoring
For example, the EOS API is a RESTful API that enables the integration of satellite data either into your application or into an existing GIS application. The app makes Sentinel, Landsat, and other Earth observation imagery easily accessible for browsing, visualization, and analysis. As a result, it can help farmers make sense of how the panchromatic band works and satellite imagery that’s useful for making their crop decisions. Likewise, the EOS API offers the integration of the following data:
- field satellite imagery for field analysis based on all the available indices (including NDVI, MSAVI, NDMI, and more);
- scene search for connecting the field’s location to the available satellite image;
- historical field trends for tracking changes in crop state, temperatures, precipitation soil moisture, and more;
- soil moisture for soil moisture analytics;
- crop classification for the accurate detection of the crop type growing in the field (available only in Ukraine or as a custom solution);
- zoning for the effective VRA approach implementation based on the differences in vegetation and productivity in different field zones;
- weather for the analysis of current and historical weather data for an area of interest;
- point value for the analysis of crop development in a specific area/point;
- elevation for the analysis of the height of any specific point on the map above the sea level;
- slope map for the analysis of elevation differences within the area of interest; and
- colorization for the customization of the color scheme of the indices available in crop monitoring.
Therefore, this type of API is of great value for agricultural businesses that have their own product but are lacking some type of data for effective fields monitoring and management.
Three Prominent Agricultural Data API Possibilities
- IT Industry: Leverage GIS satellite data to enhance your product, create new features, and achieve more.
- Insurance: Manage and monitor big data with ease, integrate satellite climate data, farming industry statistics, and more, into your systems.
- Consulting: Get quick and easy access to farming statistics for the whole region.
Additional Applications
NASA Power API
For example, this API allows third-party apps to interact and connect with weather data collected from satellite sensors using this API.
Open Food Network API
This platform help farmers sell their produce online. As a result, farmers can use it to create online shops while collaborating with others to reach a broader audience. Similarly, this API facilitates integration with techniques for managing images, orders, users, product types, cookies, and much more.
The RainMachine API
This API obtains forecasts and weather information such as home automation, water areas, and remote access. Consequently, it then creates authentication with OAuth2 and makes callbacks with JSON.
Weatherby API
This API provides an eight-day weather forecast data specific to the agriculture sector. Therefore, using this API, users can get predictions of soil moisture, soil temperature, evaporation, and much more. However, JSON is the supported response format, and users will need an API key for authentication.
The Cattlemen’s Beef API
Using this API, people can get information about beef recipes from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Firstly, it uses RESTful calls over HTTPS. Therefore, to use the API, the developer needs an AuthorizationAppKey and AuthorizationAppID.
The Plant.id
This API gets information of plants in JSON formation from pictures recognized using machine learning. As a result, it’s useful because it helps people identify plants in images.
The Agrimetrics Field Finder API
This API gets the field identifier for any provided longitude and latitude. That is to say, it is used in combination with other Field Explorer APIs to obtain info about provided fields. As a result, it is the group of Agrimetrics Data Platform that helps with decision-making in the agri-food sector.
The EquipmentWatch API
This API provides data on the agricultural, construction, and lift/access equipment markets. Consequently, using this API, people can make informed decisions on heavy equipment that heavily affects profits.
SkyWise Insight API
Using this API, users can obtain forecast, current, and historical information on any location. Similarly, the weather data is updated every hour with a resolution of 1km. Likewise, it also has endpoints to monitor weather variables and industry-specific metrics, like degree, evapotranspiration, and heating.
Agrolink
This is an informational website for Brazillian agriculture. It uses a SOAP API through which users can get data from the site, such as information on specific crops, fertilizers, farming-related statistics, and much more. The information provided by the website is only in Portuguese.
