Precision Farming: Dreams and Realities for Indian Agriculture

Precision Farming: Dreams and Realities for Indian Agriculture

U. K. Shanwad
PhD Student,
Department of Agronomy,
University of Agricultural Sciences,
Dharwad
Phone No. 0836 – 2743179
Fax: 0836 – 2440366
E-mail: shanwad@rediffmail.com

V.C. Patil
Professor and Head, Department of Agronomy,
University of Agricultural Sciences,
Dharwad

H. Honne Gowda
Director,
Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre (KSRSAC),
Bangalore

Preamble
Ever since the man appeared on the earth, he has been harnessing the natural resources to meet his basic requirements. Reference to soil, water and air as basic resources, their management and means to keep them pure are mentioned in the Vedas, Upanishads and in ancient Hindu literature. The phenomenal increase in population of both man and animal in the last century and fast growing industrialization and urbanization in last few decades have overstrained the natural resource base, which are getting degraded much faster than ever before. Thus, the attention of whole world is focused on how to increase production to feed the burgeoning population and the question uppermost in every ones mind is “Can we produce enough food in a sustainable manner without damage to the natural resource base?”

Belying all predictions made to the contrary, India could achieve unprecedented increase in the food grain production as a result of expansion of irrigation and technological advancement in agriculture. While it has been a satisfying experience, Indian agriculture would need a new vision to make rapid progress in the ensuing millennium. To achieve the required growth will not be easy as some of the existing production systems are based on unsustainable use of the resources. The signs of fatigue in the natural resources have already appeared which is a cause for serious concern to the planners, decision-makers and researchers alike.

Precision Agriculture is the application of technologies and principles to manage spatial and temporal variability associated with all aspects of agricultural production for improving production and environmental quality. The success in precision agriculture depends on the accurate assessment of the variability, its management and evaluation in space-time continuum in crop production. The agronomic feasibility of precision agriculture has been intuitive, depending largely on the application of traditional arrangement recommendations at finer scales. The agronomic success of precision agriculture has been quite convincing in crops like sugar beet, sugarcane, tea and coffee. The potential for economic, environmental and social benefits of precision agriculture is largely unrealized because the space-time continuum of crop production has not been adequately addressed.

Successful implementation of precision agriculture depends on numerous factors, including the extent to which conditions within a field are known and manage, the adequacy of input recommendation and the degree of application control. The enabling technologies of precision agriculture can be grouped in to fine major categories: Computers, Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Application control.

Aspects of precision agriculture encompass a broad array of topics including variability of the soil resource base, weather, plant genetics, crop diversity, machinery performance and most physical, chemical and biological inputs used in crop production. Precision agriculture must fit the needs and capabilities of the farmer and must be profitable.

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