SWOC Analysis on Precision Farming System

Abstract

The adoption of precision farming (PF) in India is yet to take a firm ground primarily due to its unique pattern of landholdings, poor infrastructure and lack of farmers’ inclination to take risk, socio-economic and demographic conditions. The study attempted to analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges on PF in the western and north-western zones of Tamil Nadu. Increased crop yield, increased area under cultivation, economised use of water, high economic efficiency, effective and efficient pest management, enhancing bulk procurement of inputs, technical support from stakeholders and sharing of information with the forum members were expressed as major strengths by more than 80% of the respondents. High initial investment cost, additional maintenance cost, lack of technical know-how, no initiative for assessing in-field variations, selectivity in usage of PF technologies (72.50%), requirement of skilled labour, etc., were observed as weaknesses and reported by nearly three-fourth of the sample. Provision of bank loan, availability of subsidies, increased agricultural commodity prices, more free time, attracting the farm youth and improvising of extension services were projected as opportunities of the sample. High cost of water-soluble fertilisers, more time period to realise the return on investment and viability of PF tools for larger enterprises were the challenges expressed by more than half of the sample.