What is Precision Agriculture?

More than three decades from now, the world’s population is expected to reach 9.2 billion people. This is 34% higher than today. This growth will occur in developing countries like Brazil, which has the largest area of agricultural land in the world. To keep up with this, 70 % of the food production must increase in order to feed the world.

According to research done by distinguished Engineer Ulisses Mello, the solution to this impending problem lies in real time gathering data and analysis. Techniques and technologies in Precision Agriculture are studied on how they can be of help for the food production. This scientific and technological innovation gives the opportunity to address critical issues such as world hunger. This in turn can profoundly affect the lives of billions of people.

Precision Agriculture

Typical agriculture techniques only involve planting or harvesting on a fixed schedule. On the other hand, Precision Agriculture is designed to make smarter decisions. It involves gathering real-time data on crop maturity, equipment availability, labor costs, weather, soil, and air quality to get a predictive analytics.

With the data gathered, control centers can collect and process data in real time. This is a means of helping farmers decide what is best for planting, fertilizing and harvesting crops. This is done through placing sensors all over the field. Sensors are used to measure temperature and humidity of the soil and air.

Satellite imagery and robotic drones are used in taking pictures of fields. These images show crop maturity. When attached with predictive weather modeling, it can pinpoint the weather conditions of the next 48 hours. From there, models and simulations are built to help predict future conditions and assist in decision-making.

Optimizing Planting, Harvesting and Distribution

In growing crops, farmers have to understand how to cultivate a specific area. They need to consider the seed’s resistance to weather and local diseases, as well as the environmental impact of planting the seed. For instance, if the field is near the river, it is best to use a seed which requires less fertilizer. This will help reduce pollution.

After planting the seeds, options on fertilizing and maintaining the crops depend on the weather. Farmers can decide not to put fertilizer if they know heavy rain can wash it away. In addition, the schedule of irrigating the fields is also influenced by the climate. Since 70% of the freshwater is used in agriculture, well-managed usage of fresh water will have great impact to the fresh water supply. Harvesting and transportation logistics are also affected by the weather. For instance, in harvesting sugar cane, the soil must be dry to support the weight of the harvesting equipment. If it is wet, the equipment might only destroy the crop. In short, understanding the weather and the fields affected will result to better decision making.

The Future of Precision Agriculture

At present, large companies are using precision agriculture technologies. This is because it requires robust IT infrastructure and resources for the monitoring. On the other hand, time will come that smaller farms and co-ops will be using mobile devices and crowd sourcing to enhance their own agriculture. With these devices, for example, a farmer can take a picture of a crop and upload it to the data base where an expert can examine the crops’ maturity based on its color and other properties. People can provide then their own reading on temperature and humidity even without a sensor.

With growing demands on the food supply, it is crucial to maximize agriculture resources in a sustainable manner. Precision agriculture plays a big role in the search of solutions for food production problems. It provides high performance supercomputing, computational sciences, analytics and optimization. It enables the researchers to uniquely understand the complexities of agriculture and develop the right weather forecasts, models and simulations that can help farmers and companies make informed decisions.

Agricultural industry has also embraced what the modern technology can offer. Technological advances are used in the production of food. This can help solve the impeding problems that the world has to face when time comes. With Integrated Agriculture and Industrial Consultancy International, LLC, they can advise you the right way regarding these inventions. They will help you make the right decisions on how to handle your crops and fields.