SBI soil brightness index added to AgriChain Scout functionality

IT company AgriChain is introducing field monitoring using the Soil Brightness Index (SBI) in the AgriChain Scout system. The test deployment of the index was carried out on the assets of the Astarta agricultural holding. The updates have now been successfully tested and are available to all customers who want to take a more rational approach to soil analysis and resource allocation.

The Soil Brightness Index (SBI) is a tool that can be used for rapid analysis of soils with differentiated soil cover. The index is calculated with the help of satellites and reflects the difference in soil color during the period when there is no crop on it.

The Sentinel resource, which AgriChain uses to analyze fields using the NDVI, GNDVI, EV2, and satellite images, allowed us to work with the SBI index. Thus, based on the data provided by Sentinel Online, the company has developed its own scripts for analyzing images and a scale for evaluation. The color on the images correlates from light to dark, which corresponds to the content of soil organic matter. It is known that the most fertile soils, such as chernozems, have a darker color, and the weakest ones are lighter. In other words, fertile soils or areas of a field have a darker color and a higher index, while less fertile soils have a lighter color and, accordingly, a lower index. The colors differ both within and between fields, so you can visually compare fields in an array, their fertility, and compare them with other indices, such as vegetation.

The index, implemented by AgriChain, makes it possible to analyze soil, for example, even for those users who do not have access to the results of agrochemical soil analysis or data on their electrical conductivity, as the data is collected using remote sensing. The tool can be used to compare the color of the soil cover, which directly depends on its fertility both within a field and between fields in an array.

“Information about the soil condition, its supply of nutrients, and the level of soil cover differentiation within a field is the basis for making any technological decisions in agricultural production. The relevance of this issue is increasingly growing, especially now that mineral fertilizers have risen significantly in price and are sometimes in short supply. All this is a signal to dive deeper into the analysis of the field condition in order to reduce production costs and maintain soil fertility and yields. At Astarta, we take an individual approach to each field, determining its potential. And the analysis of the fields using the SBI index allows us to examine the soil cover in even more detail and monitor problem areas. We compare this survey with the vegetation index and yield maps, so we can identify the most significant factors affecting field productivity. Thanks to the SBI index, we can zone fields for sampling, and then, depending on the amount of active ingredients, sow crops and apply fertilizers in a differentiated manner,” explains Viktoriia Oliynyk, an agrochemist at Astarta’s agronomic service.

“Soil analysis using the SBI index available in the AgriChain Scout system is new for Ukrainian agricultural producers, but it provides valuable information for making decisions on sustainable soil management, a differentiated approach to fertilization and mitigation.