Case Study: DARPA predicts wheat crop yields and potential food shortages with Descartes Labs

Food insecurity is often a primary cause of instability and civil unrest for many countries around the world

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) faced the challenge of proactively identifying potential food shortages to mitigate instability and civil unrest, a major consequence of food insecurity.

Descartes Labs addressed this challenge by leveraging its platform to analyze multi-modal geospatial data, including optical and radar imagery and weather measurements, to build predictive models for wheat crop yields. The solution successfully mapped small grains with 91% overall accuracy, delivering these high-accuracy results months before harvest and enabling DARPA to better understand and prepare for evolving agricultural outputs.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency