Connecting the Canopy: C-Band and Ku-Band Satellite Technologies for Sustainable Oil Palm Plantation Management in Indonesia—A Review
Downloads
Indonesia's oil palm plantations are increasingly expected to combine high productivity with environmental protection, traceability, worker welfare, and smallholder inclusion. Achieving these objectives requires reliable digital connectivity across plantation landscapes that are frequently extensive, remote, and inadequately served by terrestrial telecommunications. This qualitative literature review examines the characteristics of C-band and Ku-band satellite technologies and critically explores their roles in supporting sustainable oil palm plantation management in Indonesia. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature published since 2020 covering satellite communications, Internet of Things, smart agriculture, remote sensing, oil palm agronomy, and sustainability governance, the review develops a socio-technical synthesis rather than a systematic or meta-analytic assessment. C-band generally provides stronger resilience to tropical rain attenuation and is attractive for fixed, availability-critical backbone connectivity, whereas Ku-band enables smaller terminals, greater deployment flexibility, and practical broadband access but requires more deliberate rain-fade mitigation. Neither band is intrinsically superior, and actual performance depends on link design, service architecture, traffic requirements, cost, and local conditions. The review identifies applications in environmental surveillance, precision agronomy, disease detection, harvesting, logistics, traceability, worker safety, and sustainability assurance. It proposes an Observe–Connect–Decide–Act–Verify framework and a hybrid connectivity architecture integrating field networks, satellite backhaul, terrestrial networks, edge computing, remote sensing, and analytics. Sustainable benefits ultimately depend not merely on connectivity but on inclusive governance, institutional capacity, appropriate agronomic action, and mechanisms preventing digitalization from reinforcing existing inequalities.
Ahmad, Y.A., Ismail, A.F. and Badron, K. (2022) ‘Ku-band specific attenuation coefficients for high-throughput satellites in equatorial region’, TELKOMNIKA (Telecommunication Computing Electronics and Control), 20(4), pp. 722–730. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.12928/telkomnika.v20i4.23766.
Ahmadi, P. et al. (2022) ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based remote sensing for early-stage detection of Ganoderma’, Remote Sensing, 14(5), 1239. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14051239.
Al-Jumaily, A. et al. (2022) ‘Evaluation of 5G coexistence and interference signals in the C-band satellite earth station’, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 71(6), pp. 6189–6200. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVT.2022.3158344.
Amar, S., Bori, N. and Cörvers, R. (2026) ‘From collection to control: Data governance, digital technologies, and the politics of inclusion in the digitalisation of smallholder agriculture’, Outlook on Agriculture, 55(1), pp. 19–27. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/00307270251410944.
Apriani, E. et al. (2020) ‘Non-state certification of smallholders for sustainable palm oil in Sumatra, Indonesia’, Land Use Policy, 99, 105112. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105112.
Astuti, R. et al. (2022) ‘Making illegality visible: The governance dilemmas created by visualising illegal palm oil plantations in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia’, Land Use Policy, 114, 105942. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105942.
Avşar, E. and Mowla, M.N. (2022) ‘Wireless communication protocols in smart agriculture: A review on applications, challenges and future trends’, Ad Hoc Networks, 136, 102982. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2022.102982.
Ayompe, L.M., Schaafsma, M. and Egoh, B.N. (2021) ‘Towards sustainable palm oil production: The positive and negative impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 278, 123914. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123914.
Ballester-Berman, J.D. and Rastoll-Gimenez, M. (2021) ‘Sensitivity analysis of Sentinel-1 backscatter to oil palm plantations at pluriannual scale: A case study in Gabon, Africa’, Remote Sensing, 13(11), 2075. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13112075.
Bicknell, J.E. et al. (2023) ‘Enhancing the ecological value of oil palm agriculture through set-asides’, Nature Sustainability, 6, pp. 513–525. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01049-6.
Bulut, C. and Wu, P.F. (2023) ‘More than two decades of research on IoT in agriculture: A systematic literature review’, Internet Research, 34(3), pp. 994–1016. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-07-2022-0559.
Canfield, M. and Ntambirweki, B. (2024) ‘Datafying African agriculture: From data governance to farmers’ rights’, Development, 67(1), pp. 5–13. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-024-00405-7.
Carolan, M. (2024) ‘Who and what gets recognized in digital agriculture: Agriculture 4.0 at the intersectionality of (Dis)Ableism, labor, and recognition justice’, Agriculture and Human Values, 41(4), pp. 1465–1480. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-024-10560-9.
Centenaro, M. et al. (2021) ‘A survey on technologies, standards and open challenges in satellite IoT’, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 23(3), pp. 1693–1720. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2021.3078433.
Chen, X., Xu, Z. and Shang, L. (2023) ‘Satellite Internet of Things: Challenges, solutions, and development trends’, Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering, 24, pp. 935–944. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.2200648.
Choiruzzad, S.A.B., Tyson, A. and Varkkey, H. (2021) ‘The ambiguities of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil certification: Internal incoherence, governance rescaling and state transformation’, Asia Europe Journal, 19(2), pp. 189–208. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-020-00593-0.
Danylo, O. et al. (2021) ‘A map of the extent and year of detection of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand’, Scientific Data, 8, 96. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00867-1.
de Vos, R.E. et al. (2023a) ‘Pre-certification conditions of independent oil palm smallholders in Indonesia: Assessing prospects for RSPO certification’, Land Use Policy, 130, 106660. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106660.
de Vos, R.E. et al. (2023b) ‘Shortening harvest interval, reaping benefits? A study on harvest practices in oil palm smallholder farming systems in Indonesia’, Agricultural Systems, 211, 103753. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2023.103753.
Evans, B. et al. (2021) ‘An integrated satellite–terrestrial 5G network and its use to demonstrate 5G use cases’, International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking, 39, pp. 358–379. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/sat.1393.
Falgenti, K. et al. (2025) ‘Enhancing traceability and sustainability in smallholder oil palm plantations through gap analysis and machine learning’, ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development, 43(1), Article 11. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.61931/2224-9028.1637.
Friha, O. et al. (2021) ‘Internet of Things for the future of smart agriculture: A comprehensive survey of emerging technologies’, IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, 8(4), pp. 718–752. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/JAS.2021.1003925.
Fuentes-Peñailillo, F. et al. (2024) ‘Transformative technologies in digital agriculture: Leveraging Internet of Things, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence for smart crop management’, Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks, 13(4), 39. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/jsan13040039.
Gaveau, D.L.A. et al. (2022) ‘Slowing deforestation in Indonesia follows declining oil palm expansion and lower oil prices’, PLOS ONE, 17(3), e0266178. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266178.
Hidalgo, F. et al. (2023) ‘Digitalization, sustainability, and coffee: Opportunities and challenges for agricultural development’, Agricultural Systems, 208, 103660. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2023.103660.
Idoje, G., Dagiuklas, T. and Iqbal, M. (2021) ‘Survey for smart farming technologies: Challenges and issues’, Computers & Electrical Engineering, 92, 107104. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2021.107104
Johari, S.N.A.M. et al. (2023) ‘Detection of bagworm infestation area in oil palm plantation based on UAV remote sensing using machine learning approach’, Agriculture, 13(10), 1886. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13101886.
Khuzaimah, Z. et al. (2022) ‘Application and potential of drone technology in oil palm plantation: Potential and limitations’, Journal of Sensors, 2022, 5385505. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/5385505.
Kumar, V. et al. (2024) ‘A comprehensive review on smart and sustainable agriculture using IoT technologies’, Smart Agricultural Technology, 8, 100487. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atech.2024.100487.
Kurihara, J. et al. (2022) ‘Early detection of basal stem rot disease in oil palm tree using unmanned aerial vehicle-based hyperspectral imaging’, Remote Sensing, 14(3), 799. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030799.
Lim, Y.L. et al. (2023) ‘Too little, too imbalanced: Nutrient supply in smallholder oil palm fields in Indonesia’, Agricultural Systems, 210, 103729. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2023.103729.
Liu, X. et al. (2021) ‘Automatic detection of oil palm tree from UAV images based on the deep learning method’, Applied Artificial Intelligence, 35(1), pp. 13–24. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/08839514.2020.1831226.
Mehrabi, Z. et al. (2021) ‘The global divide in data-driven farming’, Nature Sustainability, 4, pp. 154–160. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00631-0.
Meijaard, E. et al. (2020) ‘The environmental impacts of palm oil in context’, Nature Plants, 6, pp. 1418–1426. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-00813-w.
Metta, M. et al. (2022) ‘An integrated socio-cyber-physical system framework to assess responsible digitalisation in agriculture: A first application with Living Labs in Europe’, Agricultural Systems, 203, 103533. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2022.103533.
Monzon, J.P. et al. (2023) ‘Agronomy explains large yield gaps in smallholder oil palm fields’, Agricultural Systems, 210, 103689. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2023.103689.
Mowla, M.N. et al. (2023) ‘Internet of Things and wireless sensor networks for smart agriculture applications: A survey’, IEEE Access, 11, pp. 145813–145852. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3346299.
Naseer, A. et al. (2024) ‘A systematic literature review of the IoT in agriculture—global adoption, innovations, security, and privacy challenges’, IEEE Access, 12, pp. 60986–61021. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3394617.
Navarro, E., Costa, N. and Pereira, A. (2020) ‘A systematic review of IoT solutions for smart farming’, Sensors, 20(15), 4231. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/s20154231.
Pathmudi, V.R. et al. (2023) ‘A systematic review of IoT technologies and their constituents for smart and sustainable agriculture applications’, Scientific African, 19, e01577. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2023.e01577.
Porciello, J. et al. (2022) ‘Digital agriculture services in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic scoping review’, Global Food Security, 34, 100640. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100640.
Prakash, C. et al. (2023) ‘Advancements in smart farming: A comprehensive review of IoT, wireless communication, sensors, and hardware for agricultural automation’, Sensors and Actuators A:
Physical, 362, 114605. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2023.114605.
Pribadi, D.O. et al. (2023) ‘Mapping smallholder plantation as a key to sustainable oil palm: A deep learning approach to high-resolution satellite imagery’, Applied Geography, 154, 102921.
Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.102921.
Putra, Y.C. and Wijayanto, A.W. (2023) ‘Automatic detection and counting of oil palm trees using remote sensing and object-based deep learning’, Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 29, 100914. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2022.100914.
Putri, E.I.K. et al. (2022) ‘The oil palm governance: Challenges of sustainability policy in Indonesia’, Sustainability, 14(3), 1820. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031820.
Qazi, S., Khawaja, B.A. and Farooq, Q.U. (2022) ‘IoT-equipped and AI-enabled next generation smart agriculture: A critical review, current challenges and future trends’, IEEE Access, 10, pp. 21219–21235. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3152544.
Ramírez-Arroyo, A. et al. (2025) ‘Multi-connectivity solutions for rural areas: Integrating terrestrial 5G and satellite networks to support innovative IoT use cases’, Smart Agricultural Technology, 12, 101260. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atech.2025.101260.
Rejeb, A. et al. (2022) ‘The interplay between the Internet of Things and agriculture: A bibliometric analysis and research agenda’, Internet of Things, 19, 100580. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iot.2022.100580.
Rinaldi, F. et al. (2020) ‘Non-terrestrial networks in 5G & beyond: A survey’, IEEE Access, 8, pp. 165178–165200. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3022981.
Santika, T. et al. (2021) ‘Impact of palm oil sustainability certification on village well-being and poverty in Indonesia’, Nature Sustainability, 4, pp. 109–119. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00630-1.
Shahab, H. et al. (2024) ‘IoT-based agriculture management techniques for sustainable farming: A comprehensive review’, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 220, 108851. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2024.108851.
Singh, A.K. et al. (2024) ‘Smart connected farms and networked farmers to improve crop production, sustainability and profitability’, Frontiers in
Agronomy, 6, 1410829. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fagro.2024.1410829.
Sinha, B.B. and Dhanalakshmi, R. (2022) ‘Recent advancements and challenges of Internet of Things in smart agriculture: A survey’, Future Generation Computer Systems, 126, pp. 169–184. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2021.08.006.
Sugianto, H. et al. (2023) ‘First things first: Widespread nutrient deficiencies limit yields in smallholder oil palm fields’, Agricultural Systems, 210, 103709. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2023.103709.
Sullivan, C.S. et al. (2024) ‘Building trust: A systematic review of the drivers and barriers of agricultural data sharing’, Smart Agricultural Technology, 8, 100477. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atech.2024.100477.
Supriatna, J. et al. (2024) ‘Sustainability analysis of smallholder oil palm plantations in several provinces in Indonesia’, Sustainability, 16(11), 4383. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/su16114383.
Tang, Y. et al. (2021) ‘A survey on the 5G network and its impact on agriculture: Challenges and opportunities’, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 180, 105895. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2020.105895.
Tao, W. et al. (2021) ‘Review of the Internet of Things communication technologies in smart agriculture and challenges’, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 189, 106352. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2021.106352.
Watts, J.D. et al. (2021) ‘Challenges faced by smallholders in achieving sustainable palm oil certification in Indonesia’, World Development, 146, 105565. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105565.
Wibowo, H., Sitanggang, I.S., Mushthofa and Adrianto, H.A. (2022) ‘Large-scale oil palm trees detection from high-resolution remote sensing images using deep learning’, Big Data and Cognitive Computing, 6(3), 89. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc6030089.
Wong, Y.B. et al. (2023) ‘Smallholder oil palm plantation sustainability assessment using multi-criteria analysis and unmanned aerial vehicles’, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 195, 577. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11113-z.
Xu, K. et al. (2021) ‘A new machine learning approach in detecting the oil palm plantations using remote sensing data’, Remote Sensing, 13(2), 236. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13020236.
Xu, Y. et al. (2020) ‘Annual oil palm plantation maps in Malaysia and Indonesia from 2001 to 2016’, Earth System Science Data, 12, pp. 847–867. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-847-2020.
Xu, Y. et al. (2022) ‘Recent expansion of oil palm plantations into carbon-rich forests’, Nature Sustainability, 5, pp. 574–577. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00872-1.
Yang, X. et al. (2021) ‘A survey on smart agriculture: Development modes, technologies, and security and privacy challenges’, IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, 8(2), pp. 273–302. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/JAS.2020.1003536.
Zeng, J. et al. (2022) ‘Optimization of open-access optical and radar satellite data in Google Earth Engine for oil palm mapping in the Muda River Basin, Malaysia’, Agriculture, 12(9), 1435. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12091435.
Zhao, J. et al. (2023) ‘Replanting and yield increase strategies for alleviating the potential decline in palm oil production in Indonesia’, Agricultural Systems, 210, 103714. Available at:
