Concept Of Precision Agriculture Research Articles

Possible adoption of precision agriculture for developing countries at the threshold of the new millennium

The concept of precision agriculture, based on information technology, is becoming an attractive idea for managing natural resources and realizing modern sustainable agricultural development. It is bringing agriculture into the digital and information age. The practice has smoothly extended into some developing countries. The basic principle of managing soil and crop variability within a field is certainly not new. It was named ‘intensive and meticulous cultivation’ by the Chinese people and has been long regarded as the cream of Chinese conventional agriculture. Toward the new millennium, China is preparing to follow the experience of the developed world and is starting to investigate the new technology. This paper considers the possible adoption of precision agriculture for developing countries and ideas in conducting the practice in China.

643 Site-specific Management for the 21st Century

The new agricultural system called soil/site specific crop management (SSCM), now more generally named precision agriculture (precision farming) is the start of a revolution in natural resource management based on INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND CONTROL: it is bringing agriculture in the digital and information age. New technologies in the early 80s, particularly the microprocessor, made possible the development in the United States of farm machinery computers and controllers, the electronic acquisition and process of spatial field data to build farm geographic record keeping systems, the production of soil/site specific condition and management maps using GIS, the positioning of machines using GPS, and the development of real-time soil and crop sensors, particularly yield sensors. The concept of precision agriculture originated from a better awareness of soil and crop conditions variability within fields. The variability of soil conditions within parcels in the U.S. has been demonstrated in many ways (soil survey, soil sampling, and remote sensing) for both soil nutrients and soil physical properties (e.g., available water and compaction). It is progressively found that the concept of precision agriculture can be applied to a variety of crops and practices; management technological levels; and farm types and sizes. For example, in addition to grain crops (corn, soybeans, and wheat), applications are now developed for sugar beet and sugar cane, potato, cotton, peanut, vegetables, turf, or- chard, livestock, tree plantation, etc. Precision agriculture is still in infancy but it is the agricultural system of the future because it offers a unique variety of potential benefits in profitability, productivity, sustainability, crop quality, food safety, environmental protection, on-farm quality of life, and rural economic development.