News from the Focus groups in Colombia

At the beginning of the year, we told you about DINOSAR’s specific focus on the expectations and needs of end users (read the article here). More than a year after the start of the project, find out the latest news from the focus group meetings.

An ongoing process

The second round of feedback and validation sessions has been conducted to assess the requirements of potential end-users of biomass estimation technologies in sugarcane cultivation in the Valle del Cauca region. This phase focused on engaging key stakeholder groups through focus groups, including sugar mills, large-scale growers, smallholder farmers, and the sugarcane research center.

Initial conclusions and lessons to be learned

These sessions confirmed the strategic value of biomass estimation as a critical variable for informed decision-making in crop management and harvest planning. Among the most relevant insights was the shift towards quantitatively measuring biomass, moving beyond traditional vegetation indices, and leveraging both optical and radar satellite imagery to improve data continuity and reliability.

The need for technical support to interpret this information and translate it into actionable decisions has also been highlighted as essential to maximize the value extracted from these tools.

Categorising end-users to better meet their expectations

Following these numerous meetings, two main user groups can be identified. The first group has a higher technical capacity to analyze and interpret biomass data independently. The second group, however, would benefit from a decision-support model or recommendation system. Such a model would need to correlate changes in biomass accumulation over time with specific agronomic actions—whether to stimulate or mitigate growth—enabling users to align growth curves with the genetic potential of each variety under different environmental conditions.