For the 1^st time, CNES will be attending this year’s International Agricultural Show* in Paris, from 25 February to 5 March. This may seem an unlikely place for the agency to be at 1^st sight, but space is in fact related to agriculture in more ways than one. For example, who knew that satellite-based observation is helping sugar beet growers?

While space is an unrivalled observatory for studying the Solar System and Universe, it is above all a unique vantage point to view and protect our own planet—a major priority of France’s space policy, which is focusing more than ever before on getting space technologies working for society.

Space applications are increasingly meeting real-world requirements in many areas, including:

• Mapping,
• Urban and land planning,
• Natural resource management (water resources, forestry, mining, etc.),
• Agriculture, which is a key area of investigation for the Spot Earth observation satellites.

Satellites are an unexpected and yet precious aid for inventorying crop acreage, forecasting yields and monitoring application of agricultural aid measures.

Spot 5 is capable of discriminating and inventorying most plant species, as well as detecting illegal crops that are often grown in remote regions.

Since space is playing its part in advancing cultivation of sugar beet, CNES will quite naturally be spending one week at the International Agricultural Show … sharing a stand with the CEDUS sugar research and documentation centre.

* Espace Odyssée Végétale, Porte de Versailles - Hall 2-2 - aisle C, stand 2i
** Monitoring Agriculture by Remote Sensing - Politique Agricole Commune