Tag: precision farming

This paper presents the outcome from a case study analysis for a Canadian farm that does site-specific fertilisation (SSF), a precision farming approach which takes into consideration the spatial variability of soils. The economic results for three years of wheat and canola production are compared to a neighbouring farm, which is practicing conventional broadcast application of fertilisers. Since no additional investments in machinery are needed, the annual variable cost is 6 CAD/acre. In the standard case, the average profit is 30 CAD/acre. The rather pronounced difference in the effects from SSF application in wheat vs. canola leads one to question whether this is a crop-related systematic outcome or instead represents something more random. Sensitivity analyses generated two main insights. First, the economics of SSF are sensitive to a modification in commodity prices – a 50 % cut would reduce the average profit to about 9 CAD/acre. Second, another scenario calculation in which no-till is assumed to generate a 5% increase in yields suggests that the net profit would be just 7 CAD/acre. Given the existence of so many uncertainties, this paper calls for more farm-based economic analysis of SSF, one which should also include a comparison of different service providers ...

Innovation in agriculture ensures the widespread use of the most up-to-date technology. One such technology is precision crop protection, which meets the requirement of environmental and economic sustainability. The applicability of precision crop protection has been verified by several studies and in practice, but its uptake is very slow. Examining the economic relationships between potential savings and pests at the European Union level, this paper shows that the savings in pesticide use following the adoption of precision plant protection can be 30,000 tonnes (calculated using the current dose levels) per annum. If approximately 30 per cent of the crop producing and mixed farms larger than 16 ESU apply this new technology, the environmental burden will be reduced by 10-35 per cent. From a survey of 72 Hungarian farmers we found a positive correlation between the size of the farm and the adoption of precision farming technology, and those farmers in the survey that had implemented precision crop production estimated that the consequent change in income had been positive. Thus, at a certain farm size and farming intensity, precision crop production is a real, environmental friendly farming strategy option, through which each farm can generate an income that covers at least ...