Benefits of Precision Agriculture Application for Winter Wheat in Central China

Abstract

Precision agriculture (PA) has been suggested as a management tool to increase crop performance and improve agricultural environmental quality. In this study, we firstly reviewed the technical systems and bascial benefits of PA, and then evaluated the effects of PA technology on winter wheat yield, residual soil nitrogen and economic benefit. Three treatments, single precision seeding technology (PS), integrated precision seeding with laser land leveling technologies (PLS) and conventional land leveling and seeding technologies (CLS) were established in winter wheat cropland of central China. The result showed that PLS rather than PS significantly increased wheat yield and straw biomass after one season. PS treatment significantly reduced residual soil NO 3 −-N and NH 4 +-N, whereas PLS treatment only significantly decreased residual soil NH 4 + - N. Adoption of PA technology increased net return by 4.95%, 37.60% and 30.16% for PS, sudsidy and non-subsidy of PLS treatments, respctively. Our study suggested that integrated PLS was the good application pattern than single PS to improve wheat yield, reduced residual soil nitrogen and increased net return.