Smart Farming Technologies – Description, Taxonomy and Economic Impact

Abstract

Precision Agriculture is a cyclic optimization process where data have to be collected from the field, analysed and evaluated and finally used for decision making for site-specific management of the field. Smart farming technologies (SFT ) cover all these aspects of precision agriculture and can be categorized in data acquisition, data analysis and evaluation and precision application technologies. Data acquisition technologies include GNSS technologies, mapping technologies, data acquisition of environmental properties and machines and their properties. Data analysis and evaluation technologies comprise the delineation of management zones, decision support systems and farm management information system s. Finally, precision application technologies embrace variable-rate application technologies, precision irrigation and weeding and machine guidance. In this chapter, the reader can find a technical description of the technologies included in each category accompanied by a taxonomy of all SFT in terms of farming system type, cropping system, availability, level of investment and farmers’ motives to adopt them. Finally, the economic impact that each SFT has compared to conventional agricultural practices is given.