Satellite data can support the management of Kenyan plantations by providing key information on tea growth stages.

  • SponsorUnilever R&D UK Ltd

Tea is a major cash crop for Kenya and is an important economic driver for rural development. Tea (Camellia Sinensis) plantations are concentrated in geographically restricted climatic regions and productivity levels are already being affected by increasing climatic variability. This project investigates how satellite remote sensing, with both multispectral instruments and Synthetic Aperture Radar, can help monitor the tea plantations in order to better understand the drivers and limitations to current production.

Related publication

Snapir B, Waine TW, Corstanje R, Redfern S, De Silva J & Kirui C (2018) Harvest monitoring of Kenyan tea plantations with X-band SAR, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 11 (3) 930-938.