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WELCOME

“PRECISION FARMING ”

Course title: Modern Concepts in Crop Production ,Agron-501

Course lecturer : Dr. N.N. Gudadhe Asst.Proff.

Dept. Of Agronomy,NMCA,NAU.

Presenter

Mahesh.B.Tengli Jr.M.Sc (Agri) Extn.Edu.

Semester: II, Reg.No:2010114046

NMCA,NAU.

30/3/2015

2014-2015M.B.Tengli M.Sc(Agri) Extn.Edu.,NMCA,NAU

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Introducing you the global challenges…..!!!!!

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• Our world is getting larger… and hungrier… with every tick of the clock.

• Each second, the world’s population grows by nearly 3 more people, that is

240,000 people a day.

• By 2025, the global population will reach 8 billion people and 9.6 billion by 2050.

• This means there will be an extra billion mouths to feed within the next 12 years.

• And within one generation, there will be more people additionally on the planet

than there were at the beginning of the 20th century.

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HOW TO FEED THE WORLD BY 2050?

• By 2050, food production must increase by 70% to keep pace.

• We will need to produce more food in the next 50 years than we did in the past

10,000 years.

• To generate enough food to meet the ever-growing demands of a growing

population, we need to build more sustainable food production systems and to

embrace smarter farming methods.

• Fortunately, the technology to do so is available – and working – right now!

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FOOD PRODUCTION“A GATHERING STORM”

• Achieving the level of agricultural productivity necessary to meet the

immensely risen world demand for food, fibre and fuel by 2050 will be a

tremendous challenge.

• Meeting this challenge is made even more daunting by a number of

stringent constraints - the combined effect of which the Food and

Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has termed “a

gathering storm”.

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Key constraints that global agriculture is facing:

• Slow-down in productivity growth

• Limited availability of new arable land

• Climate change

• Price and availability of energy

• Impact of urbanisation on rural labour supply

• Policy

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• In light of the above challenges to our food supply and to the

environment, the FAO has declared Sustainable Crop Production

Intensification (or SCPI) as their first strategic objective.

• Sustainable intensification has been defined as producing more from

the same area of land while reducing negative environmental impacts.

• What is therefore needed are innovative tools and techniques that

empower farmers to do just that!

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One answer to all above global challenges ….!

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What is Precision Farming all about?

• Precision Farming is about managing variations in the field accurately to grow

more food using fewer resources and reducing production costs.

• All aspects of the environment – soil, weather, vegetation, water – vary from place

to place. And all these factors determine crop growth and farming success.

• Farmers have always been aware of this, but they lacked the tools to measure, map

and manage these variations precisely.

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• Precision Farming (or: Precision Agriculture) is about making farming processes

more accurate, efficient, and sustainable through the use of advanced satellite

navigation systems (like GPS) and Information Technology (IT).

• Put in a different way, Precision Farming is about taking the 4 Rs in agriculture to

a new level: doing the right thing, in the right place, the right way, at the right

time in the field.

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• An integrated agricultural management system incorporating several technologies.

• The technological tools often include the global positioning system,

geographical information system, yield monitor, variable rate technology, and

remote sensing.

(http://www.amesremote.com/section4.htm)

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Why is Precision Farming important?

• Precision Farming is a key technology to master the global challenge of feeding

a rapidly growing world population in a sustainable way.

• Precision Farming achieves this by helping farmers to grow more food with less

environmental impact.

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What are the benefits of Precision Farming?

• Greater sustainability

and environmental protection

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• Higher productivity • Economic benefits

• Robert et al. (2002) in their study entitles, Precision Farming Tools: GPS

Navigation, found that GPS navigation has many advantages over conventional

marking devices as a markers and especially over the visual estimation method for

spinner spreader. GPS Navigation system can increase the efficiency of the farm

or agribusiness while minimizing adverse environmental impacts associated with

overlapping applications.

• Cristian et al. (2014) in their study entitled, Automation and Computer-based

Technology for Small Vegetable Farm Holders found that using the Automation

and Computer-based Technology system it is possible to reduce fertilizers needs

by 70-90%.

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How do farmers benefit from Precision Farming?

• Farmers can benefit in a number of ways from Precision Farming, which can

help them to:

• make optimal use of resources

• increase the profitability of production

• reduce environmental impact

• reduce time in farming operations

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What are it’s building blocks?

• Global Positioning System (GPS)

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

• Applications: Yield Monitors, Remote Sensing, Precision

Navigation, Variable Rate Technology

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Global Positioning System (GPS)

• Military- Satellites

• GPS Receivers

• Locating your position on Earth

• Prices range from Rs.6,000 – Rs.24,00,000

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Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

• GIS=computer hardware and software-features attributes and location data to

produce maps.

• An important function of an agricultural GIS is to store layers of information, such

as yields, soil survey maps, remotely sends data, crop scouting reports and soil

nutrient levels.

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Applications

• Yield Monitors:

• Remote Sensing,

• Precision Navigation,

• Variable Rate Technology.

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1 bushel equals:

27.2155 kg wheat or soybeans

25.4012 kg of corn, rye or sorghum

21.7724 kg of barley grain

15.4221 kg oats (Canada)

14.5150 kg oats (US)

Precision Farming: key technologies & concepts

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• High precision positioning systems (like GPS) are the key technology to achieve

accuracy when driving in the field, providing navigation and positioning capability

anywhere on earth, anytime under any all conditions.

• The systems record the position of the field using geographic coordinates (latitude

and longitude) and locate and navigate agricultural vehicles within a field with

2cm accuracy.

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• Automated steering systems: enable to take over specific driving tasks like auto-

steering, overhead turning, following field edges and overlapping of rows.

• Automated steering systems, take full control of the steering wheel allowing the driver

to take the hands off the wheel during trips down the row and the ability to keep an eye on

the planter, sprayer or other equipment.

These technologies reduce human error and are the key to effective site management:

• Assisted steering systems show drivers the way to follow in the field with the help of

satellite navigation systems such as GPS. This allows more accurate driving but the

farmer still needs to steer the wheel.

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• Intelligent guidance systems provide different steering patterns (guidance

patterns) depending on the shape of the field and can be used in combination with

above systems.

• Geomapping is used to produce maps including soil type, nutrients levels etc. inlayers and assign that information to the particular field location.

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• Sensors and remote sensing are used to collect data from a distance to evaluatesoil and crop health (moisture, nutrients, compaction, crop diseases). Data sensorscan be mounted on moving machines.

• Integrated electronic communications between components in a system forexample, between tractor and farm office, tractor and dealer or spray can andsprayer.

• Variable rate technology (VRT): ability to adapt parameters on a machine toapply, for instance, seed or fertiliser according to the exact variations in plantgrowth, or soil nutrients and type.

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Where can Precision Farming techniques be used?

• Precision Farming techniques can be used in a wide range of agricultural

processes.

• For crop growing, different Precision Farming techniques are available for use at

every stage of the growing process: i.e. during ploughing, planting, fertilizing,

spraying, and/or harvesting.

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Precision Farming techniques in the crop growth cycle

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• Soil preparation is the first step before growing a crop.

• The ultimate objective is to produce a firm and weed-free seedbed for rapid

germination and emergence of the crop.

• One of the most important tasks in soil preparation is tilling (or ploughing):

turning the soil and loosening it.

• Soil preparation is one of the most energy-consuming parts of agriculture,

requiring significant inputs of fuel and time. Depending on the field’s location, it

may also increase the risk of soil erosion.

• Today, precision farming equipment exists that helps farmers to use considerably

less fuel and time in soil preparation by improving the accuracy, efficiency and

sustainability of the process.

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• Seeding (or: sowing) is a critical step in crop growing. For a successful seeding

process, two challenges need to be overcome:

• Correct depth: if sown too deep into the soil, roots will not be able to

breath. If sown on the surface, birds may damage the seeds.

• Proper distance: if plants are overcrowded, they will not to get enough

water, nutrients and sunlight, resulting in yield loss. If they are planted too far

from each other, valuable land is left unused.

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• Modern precision seeding equipment manages to place the seeds uniformly at

proper distances and depths for optimal access to moisture and sunlight.

• The fast, uniform germination ensure the crop can compete with weeds and

promotes even maturity across the whole field for easier harvesting and greater

yields.

• The system can be combined with Geomapping (a map showing soil density,

quality etc.).

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During their growth phase plants need:

• The right amount of nutrients – FERTILISATION

• Adequate protection from pests and diseases –

CROP PROTECTION / SPRAYING

• The right amounts of water - IRRIGATION

• In all three areas, precision farming solutions help farmers to produce more with less. 34

35Precision Irrigation

Precision SprayingPrecision Fertilising

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• For the farmer, harvesting is a critical point in time. Speed, accuracy, and timing

determine whether the harvest will be successful.

• Until recently, harvesting was the most burdensome and laborious activity of the

entire growing season.

• Today, the task is taken over by some of the most sophisticated farm machines

such as:

1. The combine harvester (‘combine’)

2. Forage harvesters (‘foragers’)

3. Specialist harvesters

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• It combines 3 separate harvesting operations into one single process: reaping,threshing and winnowing.

• The excess straw is either chopped and spread on the field or - using automatedbalers - baled to provide feed and bedding for livestock.

• Combines are used to harvest crops such as wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn,soybeans and linseed.

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• Forage harvesters (‘foragers’) for feed production: foragers chop grass, corn orother plant into small pieces which are then compacted together in a storage silofor fermentation to feed livestock.

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• Specialist harvesters: tailor-made machines have been developed for theautomated harvesting of other fruits and crops such as potatoes, carrots, sugarbeet, grapes, cotton or apples. One key challenge for these machines is how toensure perfect extraction while maintaining the physical integrity of the crop.

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Present scenario of PF in India

• Though precision farming is very much talked about in developed countries, it isstill at a very nascent stage in developing countries, including India.

• Space Application Centre, ISRO, in collaboration with CPRI, Shimla, has initiateda study on exploring the role of remote sensing for precision farming.

• Space Application Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad has started experiment in theCentral Potato Research Station farm, at Jalandhar, Punjab to study the role ofremote sensing in mapping the variability with respect to space and time.

• M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, in collaboration withNABARD, has adopted a village in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu for variablerate input application.

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• IARI, New Delhi has drawn up a plan to do precision farming experiments in the institutes’.

• PDFSR, Modipuram and Meerut (UP) in collaboration with Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE), Bhopal also initiated variable rate input application in different cropping systems.

• In coming few years precision farming may help the Indian farmers to harvest the fruits of frontier technologies without compromising the quality of land.

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Precision agriculture in India- ?

Yes or No

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Conclusion

• Precision agriculture gives farmers the ability to use crop inputs more effectivelyincluding fertilizers, pesticides, and tillage and irrigation water.

• More effective use of inputs means greater crop yield and/ or quality, withoutpolluting the environment.

• Precision farming technology brings increased efficiency to crop production. Byclosely matching application rates with crop needs, profit potential can beincreased and possible environmental impacts can be minimized.

• In India precision farming is possible on the cooperative principle.

• Various policy and scientific innovations relating to encourage precision farmingwill boost up bringing larger area under precision farming.

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Reference • http://www.cema-agri.org/page/precision-farming-0

• http://www.cema-agri.org/page/1-precision-soil-preparation

• http://www.cema-agri.org/page/2-precision-seeding

• http://www.cema-agri.org/page/3-precision-crop-management

• http://www.cema-agri.org/page/4-precision-harvesting

• http://www.cema-agri.org/page/5-precision-livestock-farming

• www.paulchefurka.ca

• www.aqueductdsr.com

• www.circleofblue.org

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Reference

Cristian Iacomi, Ioan Roca, Roxana Madjar, Beatrice Iacomi, ViorelPopescu, Gaudeniu Vrzaru and Ctlin Sfetcu (2014). Automation and computer-based Technology. Scientific papers. Series a. agronomy. 415-420.

Robert “Bobby” Grisso, Mark Alley, W. G. Wysor and Gordon Groover(2002). Precision Farming Tools: GPS Navigation. Virginia cooperativeextension, 1-7.

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Written by Mahesh.B.Tengli

Thank you