Precision Farming Is A Very Important Term Among Agricultural Engineers

Among agricultural engineers, farm managers and all the interested players involved in the cultivation of rice (cultivo arroz) and other crops Precision farming is a very important. All variables down to the smallest measurement level possible is the core of precision farming and one needs to manage and study that. Instead of studying yields, sowing, chemical applications etc at the hectare acre or farm level, precision farming attempts to monitor the variables down to the square foot or meter. A new agricultural concept on which this science depends is known as “In Field variability.”

A commitment to a higher level of management intensity lies at the heart of precision farming application. Precision farming does not happen overnight or with the purchase of your first GPS unit or yield monitor. Instead precision farming takes place over time with considered professionals often competing against inflexible customs or cultural practices. In the field testing new products experts in this field like Agricultura Cientifica SA have spent these years and weeded out what works and what does not.

Having the greatest impact in the next ten decades are the two technologies which are Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). Appearance of a wide range of sensors, monitors and controllers for agricultural equipment such as shaft monitors, pressure transducers and servo motors have come along with GIS and GPS. Farmers are together made eligible to use electronic guidance aids to direct equipment movements more accurately, provide precise positioning for all equipment actions and chemical applications and, analyze all of that data in association with other sources of data (agronomic, climatic, etc). Consisting of management tools the progressive farm manager this will add up to a new and powerful toolbox.

Being tested on only one or the other precision farming should not be thought of as only yield mapping and variable rate fertilizer application. The entire production function of the farm will be affected by precision farming technologies. Adaptation of these new and improved techniques should be done by management.

To more accurately predict crop yields in sum collected information may be used to more precisely evaluate optimum sowing density, estimate fertilizers and other inputs needs. It tries to ignore applying inflexible practices to a crop, regardless of local soil/climate conditions and In a better way it helps to assess local situations of disease or lodging. Farmers gain some other important benefits such as the farmer may be to help establish a history of his/her farm practices and results along with assisting in decision making and traceability requirements (as increasingly required in developed countries).

With the help of Satellites farmers can survey their land. Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers can provide location data on the order of one meter or less within fields; RTK technology actually provides location data to within a few centimeters. By demonstrating which fields are moist or dry, and where there is erosion of soil and other soil factors that impact crop growth have taken place are demonstrated by GPS and associated precision age technology which can provide a series of GIS maps or layers. Utilization of this data is done by farmers to automatically regulate the machine application of seed, fertilizer, pesticide or other inputs[2].

It is mainstream farmers, who are trying to maximize profits by spending money only in areas that require fertilizer, and not Sustainable Agriculture with which it is associated in the American Midwest (US). This practice allows the farmer to vary the rate of fertilizer across the field according to the need identified by GPS guided Grid or Zone Sampling. Fertilizer that would have been spread in areas that don’t need it can be placed in areas that do, thereby optimizing its use.

From several perspectives, as below, precision farming may be used to improve a field or a farm management:

* agronomical perspective: real needs of the crop – e.g. better fertilization management – ensured using adjustment of cultural practices

* technical perspective: planning of agricultural activity – i.e. better time management at the farm level

* environmental perspective: better estimation of crop nitrogen needs implying limitation of nitrogen run-off – i.e. reduction of agricultural impacts

* economical perspective: lower cost of nitrogen fertilization practice – i.e. increase of the output and/or reduction of the input, increase of efficiency

Some of the other benefits for the farmers may include assisting in decision making and traceability requirements apart from helping establish a history of his/her farm practices and results (as increasingly required in developed countries)
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