Site-specific management for the twenty-first century

Abstract

A better awareness of soil and crop condition variability within fields brought the notion, in the early 1980s that variable management within fields by zones rather than whole fields would increase profitability by doing the right thing at the right place in the right way. At the same time, the microcomputer became available and made possible the acquisition, processing, and use of spatial field data as well as the development of a new kind of farm machinery with computerized controllers and sensors. Precision agriculture (PA) has been considered for most common cropping systems and some specialty crops, worldwide. It is particularly well adapted to high value crops such as many horticultural crops. PA is still in infancy and its adoption varies greatly but precision agriculture is the agricultural system of the future. It offers a variety of potential benefits in profitability, productivity, sustainability, crop quality, food safety, environmental protection, on-farm quality of life, and rural economic development.