Examples of precision
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Precision agriculture, often known as smart farming, involves automating farming procedures to save time and energy spent on repetitive farming tasks while also enhancing productivity. While it sounds simple, precision agriculture can be complex because of the different technologies used in conjunction or individually to attain the goal of precision ag.
Here a few types of precision agriculture technology. Often, these are combined in precision farming, to create beneficial synergies the farm owners, the crops, and the environment. 1. Robotics. Crops such as lettuce, cabbage and the like need a lot of manual effort, but labor shortages have been a challenge for farmers. Robots could potentially fix this problem by compensating for the shortfalls. More so, the robot navigates the field and does the work that has been set to it. It assists farmers by blowing weeds, applying herbicides, and harvesting crops, as well as having navigation systems to help them find their way around. Robots gain attention amongst big farmers as they're light, which means they won't compact the soil, emissions of carbon dioxide are being reduced, many of the robots can work to a precision of 2 cm, allowing each seed to be properly put and mapped, and water irrigation systems may be optimized, among others. 2. GPS/GNSS. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), often known as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), are multi-component navigation systems that are most typically employed in agriculture. Farmers can use GPS to navigate to specified spots in the field to take soil samples or check crop conditions year after year. Crop consultants map pest, insect, and weed infestations in the field using robust data gathering devices with GPS for precise placement. They are simply inseparable from precision farming nowadays. Some examples of GPS are stand-alone receiver, differential receiver, and Real-Time Kinematic (RTK). Farms use GPPS and GNNs for several benefits such as enhanced soil water management, increased crop yield, inter-row cultivation, spraying, and planting, reduced skip and overlap of inputs, reduced driver fatigue, and reduced compaction. 3. Sensors. In precision agriculture, sensors (for example, yield monitors, soil nutrition sensors) are crucial because they monitor real-time physical and chemical signals in the soil, such as soil characteristics, soil temperature, soil fertility, soil properties, soil texture, water availability, pH, pollutants, and other variables. Sensors also provide key information to optimize crop growth conditions, combat biotic and abiotic stresses, and increase crop yields. They help producers monitor water usage (for example, irrigation rates), weather conditions, and environmental impacts, and relay this data to a central monitoring system. Other innovations for precision agriculture would include the use of mobile devices for farming operations, especially in connection with the Internet of Things (IoT) which refers to the idea of connecting any device having an on/off switch to the Internet (and/or to one another). Another farming technology, Variable Rate Technology, permits growers to apply varying rates of fertilizer to different parts of the farm field. Farm management software also helps by putting all of these advancements in precision agriculture into a user interface that lets farmers monitor their entire operation in real time. The concept of precision agriculture is to empower growers and producers to do more with less. The benefits of precision agriculture are increased productivity, lower costs, reduced inputs, and potentially lower environmental impacts. It is an approach to farming that has been gaining headway for at least two decades, and the adoption of precision agriculture technologies will only accelerate as the world's population continues to grow. |