Every year, Meteomatics sponsors the NASA Space Apps Challenge by providing free access to the Weather API. The creators of the project “Ometeotl: Crop Connect”, a global nominee that extensively uses our weather data, explain their app.

What Is the NASA Space Apps Challenge?

The NASA International Space Apps Challenge is a hackathon for coders, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, technologists, and innovators around the world to come together and use open data from NASA and its Space Agency Partners to create solutions to challenges we face on Earth and in space.

Inspiration for “Ometeotl: Crop Connect”

Two years ago, the state of Nuevo León, Mexico, faced a severe water crisis, disrupting water services across many regions. However, the core issue stemmed from the fact that nearly 57% of the state's water supply is allocated to crops and agriculture, making farmers the most affected by the crisis. During our experience at the NASA Space Apps challenge, we uncovered a critical truth: the lack of technological infrastructure in our country not only exacerbates this issue but is a daily struggle for farmers. That’s how the idea for Crop Connect was born.

What Does Crop Connect Do?

Crop Connect is a cutting-edge agricultural platform designed to empower farmers with data-driven insights and tools to optimize their operations. By leveraging advanced technologies like computer vision, machine learning, and real-time data analysis, we provide a suite of features to support farmers at every stage of the agricultural process by predicting weather patterns, assessing soil health, diagnosing crop status, providing expert advice, receive message alerts and visualize overall farm health.

Goals

• Provide useful analysis of crops, creating a digital-twin of the farm with updated information every day.
• Provide weather forecast information for farmers to be prepared and establish strategies for optimal growth and maintenance of crops.
• Provide easy to use tools such as chatbots for farmers to receive instant help regarding their crops.

Features

The application provides a 35-day weather forecast, historical data visualization, and generates individual data interpretation for an easier approach. Farmers can upload farm coordinates and crop images to assess health, ripeness, and pests while receiving insights on plant conditions. A dashboard offers an overview of farm performance with plot-specific details and a heatmap visualization. Real-time AI assistance helps answer farming questions, and WhatsApp integration ensures instant updates and notifications.

Through extensive research, we identified the key agricultural parameters essential for evaluating and protecting crops.

To make it easier for farmers to understand this complex information, we developed a system to present the results in interactive, easy-to-understand formats. This includes interactive graphics and PNG images that can be seamlessly integrated into the HTML interface. 

Additionally, farmers can request interpretations of the data. By processing CSV-formatted data through a Large Language Model (LLM), our application delivers clear and concise summaries of complex information.

With Crop Connect, we are able to provide farmers with a comprehensive tool to make informed decisions about their crops. The precision and customization we offer help them maximize their return on investment and reduce risks.