Smart farming, precision agriculture to achieve a more sustainable world (2023)

FAQs

How is precision agriculture sustainable? ›

Precision agriculture leverages technologies to enhance sustainability through more efficient use of land, water, fuel, fertilizer and pesticides. Essentially, farmers who use precision agriculture technologies use less to grow more, reducing both cost and environmental impact.

Precision agriculture or Smart Farming means that plants (or animals) get precisely the treatment they need, determined with great accuracy thanks to the latest technology. A range of forms of technology are used to this end, including GPS, sensor technology, ICT and robotics.

California's agricultural industry is at extreme risk to the impacts of climate change. Changes in temperatures, precipitation patterns, extreme weather events, and water availability all pose a threat to the viability of agricultural production.

What differentiates smart farming from precision agriculture is that it does not focus on precise measurements. Instead, smart farming focuses on capturing data and interpreting them using computing technologies to make farm operations more predictable and efficient.

Precision agriculture gives farmers the ability to more effectively use crop inputs including fertilizers, pesticides, tillage and irrigation water. More effective use of inputs means greater crop yield and(or) quality, without polluting the environment.

Precision agriculture (PA) is the science of improving crop yields and assisting management decisions using high technology sensor and analysis tools. PA is a new concept adopted throughout the world to increase production, reduce labor time, and ensure the effective management of fertilizers and irrigation processes.

Smart farming helps farmers to better understand the important factors such as water, topography, aspect, vegetation and soil types. This allows farmers to determine the best uses of scarce resources within their production environment and manage these in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner.

Reduced costs: automation of sowing, treatments and harvesting in the case of agriculture reduces the use of resources. Pest detection and animal health: early detection of infestations in crops or sickness in animals means that their impact on production can be minimised and animal welfare improved.

Example technologies used in smart agriculture are: Precision irrigation and precise plant nutrition. Climate management and control in greenhouses. Sensors – for the soil, water, light, moisture, for temperature management.

Sustainable agricultural practices are intended to protect the environment, expand the Earth's natural resource base, and maintain and improve soil fertility. Based on a multi-pronged goal, sustainable agriculture seeks to: Increase profitable farm income. Promote environmental stewardship.

How does Smart Farming affect the environment? ›

Smart farming (or agriculture of the future) will also reduce energy needs and the costs of fertilizers and pesticides. It is then possible to modulate nutrient and water inputs according to various parameters such as yields, soil fertility, sowing density or weather conditions.

Smart farming promotes precision agriculture with modern, sophisticated technology and enables farmers to remotely monitor the plants. Smart farming helps agricultural processes, such as harvesting and crop yields, as the automation of sensors and machinery has made the farming workforce more efficient [16].

The goal of precision agriculture is to increase efficiency and productivity, reduce input costs, and improve environmental sustainability.

Therefore, smart farming has a real potential to deliver a more productive and sustainable form of agricultural production, based on a more precise and resource-efficient approach. New farms will finally realize the eternal dream of mankind. It'll feed our population, which may explode to 9.8 billion by 2050.

The earliest, and most commonly used, precision ag technique is for variable rate applications of inputs. Variable rate technology (VRT) is installed on seeders, and fertilizers and is now being added to irrigation systems like center pivot systems.

Precision Agriculture is enabling more efficient application of inputs (seed, fertilizer), more effective utilization of tillage equipment, improved crop and field measurements, and better farm management decisions.

Precision farming includes accessing real-time data about the conditions of the crops, soil and ambient air, along with other relevant information such as hyper-local weather predictions, labor costs and equipment availability.

Thanks to remote access and basic access security, farmers can target their knowledge for a higher harvest. This closes the gap between quality and quantity. Faster action is possible through the use of advanced sensor technology and real-time data.

The major challenges of smart agriculture include continuous monitoring, energy harvesting, automatic irrigation, and disease prediction (See Fig. 1) [14]. An important issue that arises in farming is the loss of crops to various diseases.

Similarly, using smart agriculture techniques, farmers can monitor better the needs of individual animals and adjust their nutrition correspondingly, thereby preventing disease and enhancing herd health. Knowledge and capital are essential for any innovation.

What is an example of precision farming? ›

Some examples of precision agriculture include drones, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and irrigation technologies. The goal of precision agriculture is to learn new management practices to increase the profitability of agriculture production. “The core of my research assists farmers to maximize their profitability.

Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals – environmental health, economic profitability, and social equity (Figure 1). A variety of philosophies, policies and practices have contributed to these goals, but a few common themes and principles weave through most definitions of sustainable agriculture.

Reduce food loss and waste.

Loss and waste occurs all along the food chain, from field to fork. Reducing food loss and waste by 25 percent by 2050 would close the food gap by 12 percent, the land gap by 27 percent and the GHG mitigation gap by 15 percent.

A sustainable agriculture must provide a fair and reasonably secure living for farm families. It should minimize harm to the natural environment. It should maintain basic natural resources such as healthy soil, clean water, and clean air.

Precision agriculture benefits to the environment come from more targeted use of inputs that reduce losses from excess applications and from reduction of losses due to nutrient imbalances, weed escapes, insect damage, etc. Other benefits include a reduction in pesticide resistance development.

By adopting conservation practices, farmers can build rich, fertile soils that will grow robust crops while protecting water sources, storing carbon, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating fields that are more resilient to extreme weather events.

Sustainable agricultural practices are intended to protect the environment, expand the Earth's natural resource base, and maintain and improve soil fertility. Based on a multi-pronged goal, sustainable agriculture seeks to: Increase profitable farm income. Promote environmental stewardship.

Summary. Sustainable agriculture is defined by three interactive components: economic profitability, environmental stewardship and social responsibility.

In addition to preserving the earth's natural resources, sustainable agriculture benefits the environment through helping maintain soil quality, reducing erosion, and preserving water.

What can I do to support sustainable agriculture? ›

One of the big ways to achieve agricultural sustainability is to reduce our global reliance on pesticides and fertilizers and focus on natural processes that can be introduced to limit pest populations. An example of one of the components of sustainable agriculture is planting hedgerows along field edges.