Precision Farming
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Abstract
Agricultural production system is an outcome of a complex interaction of seed, soil, water and agro-chemicals (including fertilizers). Therefore, judicious management of all the inputs is essential for the sustainability of such a complex system. The focus on enhancing the productivity during the Green Revolution coupled with total disregard of proper management of inputs and without considering the ecological impacts, has resulted into environmental degradation. The only alternative left to enhance productivity in a sustainable manner from the limited natural resources at the disposal, without any adverse consequences, is by maximizing the resource input use efficiency. It is also certain that even in developing countries, availability of labour for agricultural activities is going to be in short supply in future. The time has now arrived to exploit all the modern tools available by bringing information technology and agricultural science together for improved economic and environmentally sustainable crop production. Precision agriculture merges the new technologies borne of the information age with a mature agricultural industry. It is an integrated crop management system that attempts to match the kind and amount of inputs with the actual crop needs for small areas within a farm field. This goal is not new, but new technologies now available allow the concept of precision agriculture to be realized in a practical production setting.