Cover Crops

Tracks the use of cover crops, a key regenerative agriculture practice that improves soil health and farm sustainability.

availability

On Demand

Now

indicator tier

Silver

unit

Yes/No

spatial resolution

Field-level

measurement frequency

Annual

measurement level

Plot

historic data availability

2017 - 2025

Forescast data availability

N/A

applicable crop types

Annual

applicable land type

Cropland

compliance frameworks

CSRD (ESRS E4), Nature Positive Initiative (NPI), SAI, SBTN, SBTi, TNFD

description

This indicator tracks the use of cover crops, which are plants grown to protect and enrich the soil between cash crop plantings. A key practice in regenerative agriculture, cover crops improve soil health, prevent erosion, increase water infiltration, and reduce the need for fertilizers and herbicides. For the agri-food sector, this indicator is a measure of sustainable farming practices within a supply chain and contributes to building more resilient agricultural systems.

methodology

Builds on satellite based monitoring of vegetation growth and harvest cycles. Using high-resolution, high-frequency data from the European Sentinel 2 satellite constellation, an expert model classifies annual croplands into presence or absence of cover crops in-between the main cropping periods.

validation

The model has been validated against authoritative ground truth data from France and against expert generated assessments of temporal crop growth signals.