Library · Glossary
Glossary, in plain words.
The terms behind satellite crop advice: what they mean, how they work and why they matter on an Indian farm.
- Bahar treatmentThe practice of withholding water from orchard trees for several weeks and then irrigating again. It makes trees such as Nagpur orange flower and fruit in the season the grower chooses.
- Crop coefficient (Kc)A factor that converts the weather's reference evapotranspiration into the water a particular crop uses at a particular stage.
- EvapotranspirationThe combined water lost from a field by evaporation from the soil and transpiration through the crop's leaves, usually measured in millimetres per day.
- MicroclimateThe local climate of a field, an orchard block or a slope, which can differ measurably from the district's weather.
- NDVIA number from about -1 to 1, computed from a satellite's red and near-infrared bands, that rises as plants become greener and denser.
- NPK ratioThe relative amounts of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), the three major plant nutrients, in a fertiliser or a crop's recommended dose.
- Precision agricultureFarming that treats each field by its own observations instead of treating every field the same. Satellites, weather data or field measurements decide when and where to irrigate, inspect and apply inputs.
- Sentinel-2A pair of Copernicus satellites that photograph every land surface on Earth every few days in 13 spectral bands, with 10 m pixels for the most useful bands. The data is free.
- Volumetric water contentThe share of a soil's volume that is water, expressed as a percentage. Field capacity and wilting point are the two levels that matter for crops.