Precision Agriculture... So Interesting!

Lately, precision agriculture has been somewhat of a "hot topic" in the ag world. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, this is the idea that farmers should apply nutrients to crops based on what they need, instead of covering whole fields with additives or water that will cause excess run-offs. 
Science Daily has two particularly good articles about this technique. The first article quotes a well known agronomist named Raj Khosla; "Precision agriculture is a grossly misunderstood field...the principles can be applied to 2 acres of 2,000 acres". That is the beauty of this farming technique- it is new, innovative, and can be altered to fit any type of farm. Whether this concept is used by a large- scale cotton farmer or a small- scale tobacco farmer, all of the farmers must be creative with the technique. The second article from Science Daily explains how geostatistics is used in precision agriculture. It also highlights the positive outcomes of precision agriculture, which include the improvement of the farm economy and the crop health, as well as the improvement of food security (which is a very pressing issue as the environment is faced with more and more biological limiting factors due to the poor stewardship towards the environment). The links to the articles are posted below: 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131008152051.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130423110747.htm
I decided to go a little deeper into how precision ag works. I stumbled upon an online program called "ArcGIS Software" that provides help with geostatistics. The spatial technology solution helps farmers make the best use of their land, whether for the production of agricultural food crops, biomass material, or both through the evaluation of fertilizer treatments. Based on fertilizer type, amount, and distribution, the difference in crop yield is included in the cost/productivity calculation as a final result. In all, the software provides help with all of the following: 
-dynamic modeling

-advanced visualization

-statistical analysis purposes

-sustainability analysis

-surface analysis

-math analysis

-cost path analysis (of traveling from one point to another)

-density mapping

-distance analysis

-weighted analysis

-suitblility analysis

-demographics

-fire risk 

Here are some images to help better understand the technique and how it works. The red spots indicate areas lacking in the particular nutrient. 

McGill University offers an easy- access tutorial on how to operate the ArcGIS Software for Precision Agriculture, free of charge: 

http://adamchukpa.mcgill.ca/arcgis/