Satellite images and AI to help detect organic-cotton fields Premium

A new initiative plans to combine data from satellite images and AI to keep track of cotton certification in India.

Soon, a satellite in space could be involved in determining whether your favourite cotton dress is organic.

A new initiative by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) plans to combine data from satellite images and artificial intelligence (AI) to keep track of cotton certification in India.

The project is a collaboration between ESA, GOTS and AI company Marple that will automatically classify cotton fields in India in line with cultivation standards. 

Under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions programme, the initiative will train AI models to ‘read’ ESA satellite data to identify and classify cotton fields in India.

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“This project highlights how space solutions can have a positive impact on the world and is the kind of innovation that ESA supports through its Business Applications and Space Solutions programme,” Guillaume Prigent, Business Development and Partnerships Officer at ESA, said in an email to The Hindu.

The project will help GOTS to generate accurate estimates of organic cotton yields in specific regions by incorporating standardised yield metrics.