Space to soil: How Axiom-4 holds potential to shape food production

Indian Express

01-07-2025

Written by Purvi Mehta
SpaceX's Crew Dragon named Grace, carrying the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) crew, docked at the International Space Station (ISS) last week. It is a historic mission in many ways, including for India, with Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla marking a milestone for the country's human spaceflight aspirations. The mission will also carry out 14 days of microgravity research and technology demonstrations.
Dragon resupply missions routinely deliver instruments to the ISS for Earth science. For instance, the NASA-supported CRS-30 delivered Signals of Opportunity P-band Investigation (SNOOPI), a CubeSat that uses P-band GNSS reflectometry to measure soil moisture and snow content — critical within hydrologic cycles and agriculture. Soil moisture data is indispensable: It supports drought forecasting, irrigation planning, and resilient cropping strategies in rural communities.
The mission has also carried seeds that they will try to sprout in a petri dish aboard the station. These experiments help scientists understand how microgravity affects water-use efficiency, root development, and crop resilience. Insights from space-grown plants inform Earth-bound optimisations — especially in drought-prone or saline soils.
Why is this important? Shifts in climate are driving water scarcity, higher temperatures, crop failures, and economic insecurity across the world. According to a 2023 Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, climate extremes have cost global agriculture and its farmers over $3.8 trillion in the past three decades — roughly 5 per cent of the annual global agri-GDP.
Technology plays a pivotal role in tackling climate change by enabling both adaptation and mitigation strategies. Innovations such as climate-smart agriculture, early warning systems, resilient infrastructure design, and satellite-based weather forecasting help vulnerable communities better prepare for and respond to climate shocks. Technologies emerging from space research — like soil-moisture monitoring, resilient seed strains, and controlled-environment agriculture — help our understanding on how best to predict, prevent and adapt to climate shocks.
Space-based data enhances forecasting and early warning systems that empower rural communities to decide what crop to grow, when and how. The Dragon Grace mission isn't just a space milestone — it's an agricultural and climate-change catalyst. It will enable enhanced Earth observation that allows farmers to monitor crop health, moisture levels, and pest infestations with a high degree of accuracy, enabling targeted interventions (like irrigation or fertilisation), which increases yields and reduces input costs.
Stronger forecasting tools and early warnings help predict droughts, floods and other climate-related risks, giving farmers and governments time to prepare and respond, reducing crop loss and food insecurity. Advanced plant physiology insights that augment our understanding of how plants cope with heat, salinity, or erratic rainfall, help farmers choose and manage crops better suited to changing conditions. It leads to the development of crops that are more drought-tolerant, pest-resistant, or nutrient-efficient.
Space missions like Ax-4 lay the groundwork for climate-smart farming worldwide, particularly for rural and smallholder communities. As climate shocks intensify, bridging space technology with field-level needs is essential.
So, for a smallholder farmer, who constitute over 80 per cent of our farmers, say in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the Ax-4 mission is not just a matter of pride. It can also lead to direct benefits.
The Ax-4 mission unlocks new frontiers in climate monitoring and Earth observation and signals a transformative moment for agriculture. For the smallholder farmer, this isn't just a leap in space technology — this can be a lifeline. With better climate prediction, early warning systems, and precision data, farmers can make smarter decisions, reduce risk, and build resilience against an increasingly unpredictable environment. In a world where food security hinges on climate intelligence, this mission has a lot farmers can look forward to.
The writer is senior global advisor, Global Climate and adjunct professor, Cornell University