In a world-first, the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), European Space Agency (ESA), and artificial intelligence (AI) startup Marple have launched a new demonstration project to demonstrate the potential for remote satellite monitoring of organic cotton farming systems.
The project will be carried out under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme and will train artificial intelligence (AI) to recognise cotton fields across India and automatically categorise them based on their cultivation standard using ESA satellite data. This novel technique will also allow GOTS to create reliable estimates of organic cotton yields in specific locations by including standardised yield parameters.
When combined with existing GOTS procedures, this project will allow GOTS to further improve the integrity of organic cotton by creating sophisticated risk assessment technologies for organic certification and combating fraud from the start of the supply chain. “It is an honour and a thrill to be a part of this ESA demonstration project, which lives up to our claim of being pioneers in the sustainable textile sector, enabling continuous improvement.” “Technologies like this will be game changers in terms of the integrity and promotion opportunities of organic cotton,” said Claudia Kersten, GOTS managing director.
The projected benefit of the study goes beyond identifying certified organic cotton crops. “This project demonstrates how space solutions can positively impact the world, and it is the type of innovation that ESA supports through its Business Applications and Space Solutions programme,” said Guillaume Prigent, the European Space Agency’s business development and partnerships officer.
The research will be carried out across India’s various cotton-growing areas, with the first findings expected by the end of 2023. The study is co-funded by GOTS and ESA and is being carried out in conjunction with Marple. This German software development business created the CoCuRA (Cotton Cultivation Remote Assessment) programme with ESA BASS and successfully piloted it in a feasibility study in Uzbekistan in 2021.
That endeavour demonstrated how the taught AI could distinguish cotton fields from other crops using satellite photos and sensor data and whether the cotton fields were organically grown.
This piqued the interest of GOTS, which has committed to developing cutting-edge technology to improve the integrity of the organic textile sector, mainly cotton. “All of our projects strive to use advanced technology to benefit the environment and society.” As a result, we are overjoyed that our CoCuRA technology, which arose from a moonshot research initiative, is being used practically and significantly. “We are very excited about the opportunity to work with the outstanding team at GOTS and to strengthen our successful partnership with ESA,” Dr.
