How satellites in space can help fight malnutrition

Launching a single satellite into space costs between $10 million and $400 million US dollars and over half are used for telecommunications, primarily owned by private tech companies and government agencies. The fight against malnutrition may be seen as distant from these areas, however, new research has shown how monitoring weather systems, environmental changes and land use can be used to assess and reduce malnutrition – from space, nonetheless.

First some facts about malnutrition and hunger. Affecting billions of people worldwide, malnutrition is one of the perennial issues facing humanity, and the condition is inextricably linked with extreme hunger and poverty. Malnutrition is defined as deficiencies, imbalances or excesses in a person’s diet. It is not only impacted by the quantity of food a person consumes, but also the quality of their diet. 

When looking at undernutrition, the picture painted is alarming, with a report by the United Nations in 2023 revealing that hunger afflicts one in ten people globally. That’s a total of 783 million people facing hunger worldwide today. 

• Two billion people do not get enough micronutrients in their diets 
• In 2022, 149 million children under five were estimated to be stunted (too short for their age), 45 million were estimated to be wasted (too thin for height) and 37 million were overweight or obese 
• Nearly half of deaths among children under 5 years of age are linked to undernutrition 
• Nearly 600 million people are projected to be chronically undernourished by 2030 
• Nearly a third of reproductive-age women are anaemic because of undernutrition 
• And each year, around 20 million babies are born underweight

Extreme poverty is the primary cause of malnutrition, as well as its consequence – as the conditions that create malnutrition tend to lead to a cycle of extreme poverty, which can be further impacted by disease, conflict and climate change, as well as gender inequality.

Three conditions make up malnutrition: 

• Undernutrition: The lack of access to an adequate quantity and quality of food. We’ve covered the effects of hunger and malnutrition before, but to summarise, when people suffer from undernutrition, they can no longer maintain natural bodily functions and their growth, disease resistance, learning and energy are severely impacted. 
• Micronutrient-related malnutrition or ‘hidden hunger’: This refers to vitamin and mineral deficiencies that can occur regardless of whether people are receiving the right number of calories. Like undernutrition, this can lead to severe health conditions, including weakened physical and mental health, and increased vulnerability towards diseases. 
• Overweight and obesity: This is a condition caused by overconsumption of calories and impacted by environmental, lifestyle and genetic influences. It is characterised by excessive fat deposits that can lead to increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.

Here’s where the satellites come in. Ensuring essential crops are as nutritional as possible is key to combating malnutrition on a large scale. Traditional methods of measuring the health of crops involve collecting grain during the harvesting period and sending the samples to be analysed in a laboratory. This method has two downsides: one, it’s costly and time consuming; and two, you can only measure after the harvest, which prevents farmers from making any positive changes while the crop is still growing.  

Climate change presents a significant threat to crop yields in the future, with the Global Commission on Adaptation (an independent research group sponsored by the UN, World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) predicting that climate change will depress growth in agricultural yields up to 30% by 2050. Under such circumstances, 500 million small farms around the world will be most affected, with climate change in general, threatening to push more than 100 million people within developing countries below the poverty line by 2030. 

Satellite technology can revolutionise the way the world measures nutrition in crops and fights malnutrition. As part of a European Space Agency programme, scientists from the University of Twente in the Netherlands and the National Research Council of Italy led research into the use of satellites and their ability to monitor crop nutrients over large areas, to give farmers enough time to intervene and improve their crops before harvest.  

Two polar-orbiting satellites make up the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, which aims to monitor changes in land surface conditions. Both satellites have a high swath width of 290 km – this refers to the horizontal distance covered by a satellite’s sensors as it captures images of the earth from space. High resolution and multi-spectral imaging allow the satellites to observe vegetation, soil and water cover, as well as inland waterways and coastal areas.  

When first tested in a valley in Italy, the Sentinel-2 mission was able to acquire images of four key crops - corn, rice, soybean and wheat. These crops were chosen for the experiment as they are staples in the diets of billions of people around the world, and climate variability and extremes threaten to negatively impact yields from these cornerstones of diets. 

Satellite images were collected at different stages of development of these crops and remote sensors from the satellite were able to predict the levels of calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium and other nutrients within them and estimate their overall nutrient composition and value. When these results were compared to the traditional laboratory sample methods, they were found to not only be more cost effective and timely manner, but they also outperformed those laboratory samples. 

This research matters because it enables farmers to get involved early in the growing season and intervene to boost the nutrient quality of grains and other crops. It also allows governments and other organisations to forecast ahead and avoid low points in harvesting by planting more, or taking measures to increase the health of soil to improve nutritional content of the crops, among other methods.

Micro and macronutrient deficiencies in grain and soil is a prevalent issue in many countries, including countries where Concern works. Many countries in Africa have arable soil that is unfortunately below critical thresholds for necessary micronutrients, including Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and Malawi.

Our goal of ending extreme poverty can only be realised by tackling one of poverty’s core causes – namely poor public health and nutritional deficiencies. 

As we mentioned before, hunger and malnutrition are cyclical. People suffer from hunger when they cannot get enough food and over the long term this can lead to malnutrition – although malnutrition has other causes too. 

At Concern, we work with people living in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities, ensuring they have the knowledge and resources to keep themselves and their families healthy and nourished. Through our Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM), we work with families to address malnutrition and treat malnourished children in their homes. We focus not only on the treatment of malnutrition and disease, but also on prevention. 

Our community health systems focus on women, newborns, and young children (particularly during the critical first 1,000 days of their lives) to both prevent and treat malnutrition. We train community health volunteers to screen children for the most common illnesses – malaria, diarrhoea, and respiratory infections – and equip them to provide either basic treatment or referral to a clinic.  

At Concern, we’re committed to a future free from extreme hunger and poverty and together, with your help we can achieve that.