Flax can’t be game-changing? 

Sometimes we can see things clearer the more distance we put in between us and our subject. This is particularly true for crop monitoring using satellite technology, which forms the basis of the digital platform WatchITGrow. At VITO, business developer Jürgen Decloedt  and remote sensing researcher Isabelle Piccard work on this project to support more informed decision-making in agriculture. Here’s how. 

Fields from a different perspective

Farmers used to spend two to three days physically traveling around their land trying to inspect their crops. Often kilometers apart! For crops like flax, with multiple applications like textiles, cosmetics, and building material, keeping track of growth conditions, crop history, and field quality was far from straightforward. WatchITGrow, a satellite-based platform, allows these farmers to follow crop development over large areas at once, without having to be physically present on every field. This way, they can plan which parcels they visit based on data, rather than routine inspections. 

Testing the waters 

Every product that we make starts as project research. The key innovation was testing whether the satellite technology and data insights developed through agricultural research could be packaged into a practical platform that the broader farming sector would want to use. And so it could! From 2018 on, our key research output is being transferred to the platform. 

"The flax sector is a surprisingly innovative, technology-minded group of farmers and processors. It’s great to see them embracing our new technologies enthusiastically." 
— Jürgen

Straight into the field 

Beyond flax, platforms like WatchITGrow lead to a broader way of working. By sharing research results across institutions and sectors, innovation can move faster and avoid starting from scratch each time. For Isabelle and Jürgen, that collaborative approach is what makes the work meaningful: seeing research translated into tools that are used in practice, by real people, in a sector facing concrete challenges.

"It’s fascinating to look away from the paper and see your research put into practice by people who actually benefit from it." 
– Isabelle