On the Economics of Precision Agriculture: Technical, Informational and Environmental Aspects (original) (raw)

Economic Aspects of Precision Agriculture Systems

Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, 2020

The paper deals with an economic assessment of impacts of precision agriculture (PA) on crop production economy. Based on a questionnaire survey and a FADN agricultural product expense-to-revenue ratio survey, it analyses a set of agricultural businesses the structure of which essentially copies the composition of business forms in the Czech Republic's agricultural sector. The economic assessment applies economic analysis methods based on cost calculations and a calculation formula that considers the commodity and species production structure. Based on an analysis of a number of scientific studies, it determines specific cost savings and makes a quantification of the effect of precision agriculture techniques on costs. In all the production areas, the greatest effect caused by application of precision agriculture techniques was quantified for winter wheat. Conversely, the lowest financial effects are shown in the analysed production areas for spring wheat. We also identified differences in the cost savings between spring and winter barley; the greater savings occur for winter barley. Financial effects in the form of reduced production costs were also found for other analysed crops cultivated by the businesses studied. The financial savings for the pea plant are almost comparable to those for winter barley. The greatest financial savings were achieved for sugar beet.

Economic Assessment of Precision Agriculture: A Short Review

6th International Conference on Sustainability Agriculture and Environment, 2019

Precision agricultural is designed to increase whole agricultural production efficiency with low cast effect while avoiding the unwanted effects of chemical loading to the environment. Precision agriculture offers environmental, practical and economic benefits. Precision farming potentially increase yields, reduce investment, decrease pollution, enhance economic efficiency, leading to better control in the production process and more productive work time will result in higher profits. Precision agriculture was adopted a bit slowly because of the equipment replacement cycle problems. The adoption of precision agriculture was also profit-oriented. This short review tries to collect information about the adoption and profitability of the application of some precision agriculture technologies. According to several previous studies, in general, the application of precision agriculture technologies positively increase profitability.

The “null hypothesis” of precision agriculture management

2000

As precision agriculture strives to improve the management of agricultural industries, the importance of scientific validation must not be forgotten. Eventually, the improvement that is imparted by precision agriculture management must be considered in terms of profitability and environmental Ž . impact both short and long term . As one form of precision agriculture, we consider site-specific crop management to be defined as: ''Matching resource application and agronomic practices with soil and crop requirements as they vary in space and time within a field.'' While the technological tools associated with precision agriculture may be most obvious, the fundamental concept will stand or fall on the basis of scientific experimentation and assessment. Crucial then to scientifically validating the concept of site-specific crop management is the proposal and testing of the null hypothesis of precision agriculture, i.e. ''Given the large temporal variation evident in crop yield relative to the scale of a single field, then the optimal risk aversion strategy is uniform management.'' The spatial and temporal variability of important crop and soil parameters is considered and their quantification for a crop field is shown to be important to subsequent experimentation and agronomic management. The philosophy of precision agriculture is explored and experimental designs for Precision agriculture are presented that can be employed in attempts to refute the proposed null hypothesis.

Economic Aspects and Challenges in Precision Agriculture

Trakia Journal of Sciences, 2021

Precise agriculture is an intersection in which meet high technologies, knowledge of the earth, soil, climate and good practices in agricultural activity. Economic aspects with precise agriculture are related to the introduction of those practices that can help improving the optimization of costs and achievement of higher quality products and better crop collection rates. In order to introduce the practices and techniques of precise agriculture specific investments are required in: information assurance, agro-technical procedures, monitoring services, and the use of GPS devices for mapping the field and planning the production process according to the specific needs of the farm. There are a wide variety of techniques that could be introduced in the production process, but only in certain cases these practices could be viable and could lead to real pay-back in a reasonable period of time and of course, could lead agricultural production to optimization levels , reducing costs of exploitation and improving financial statements of the farm.

Precision agriculture: a break-even acreage analysis

Southern Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA) meeting, Fort Worth, Texas, 2001

Abstract. Before engaging in precision agriculture (PA) it is important to determine the least cost strategy of obtaining the technology. A key decision to make is whether to buy the requisite equipment or custom-hire the services. Using marginal analysis in a partial budgeting framework, the study determines the breakeven acreage necessary to economically justify the purchase of PA equipment versus custom hire. The results suggest that the break-even acreage between the decision to custom hire versus the purchase of ...

Precision agriculture can increase profits and limit environmental impacts

California Agriculture, 2000

Precision agriculture is the management of an agricultural crop at a spatial scale smaller than the individual field. Mineral nutrient levels, soil texture and chemistry, moisture content and pest patterns may all vary widely from location to location. At its most fundamental level, precision agriculture is based on information management, and is made possible by a confluence of new technological developments. It provides the opportunity to increase profitability and reduce the environmental effects of farming by more closely matching the application of inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers with actual conditions in specific parts of the field. We demonstrated precision agriculture technology in a wheat field in Winters, and the farmer changed several of his management practices as a result. Adoption of this technology is limited in California at the beginning of the 27st century, but is likely to increase as growers come to appreciate the economic benefits it can provide.

Crop Production Costs, Profits, and Ecosystem Stewardship with Precision Agriculture

Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics

Ecosystem stewardship is an important goal of crop production management. The developing question has been the feasibility and profitability of best management practices (BMPs) associated with stewardship goals. Treatment-effects empirical estimates show that soybean crop ecosystem stewardship is likely to benefit from precision agriculture's (PA) information technologies to varying degrees. After accounting for the effect of overhead expenditures on technology adoption, and input costs on operating costs and profits, we show PA technologies also affect at least six BMPs. In one comprehensive framework, PA technologies affect profits, and improve crop production management through BMPs, with benefits for ecosystem stewardship.

Precision agriculture: does it make sense?

Better crops with plant food, 2010

Abbreviations: N = nitrogen; NO3 = nitrate; K = potassium. Note: Mention of a company or product name does not imply and endorsement or recommendation by the author or by the publisher. The concept of precision agriculture emerged from the belief that the variability of plant-growing conditions is one of the major contributors to field-scale differences in yield, and the idea that it could be beneficial to vary agricultural inputs according to local changes in soil properties (Robert, 1993). To make precision agriculture work, a producer must be able to obtain high quality information about the spatial variability of different soil attributes that may limit yield in specific field areas. The inability to generate such information rapidly and at an acceptable cost using soil sampling and laboratory analysis remains one of the biggest obstacles to the adoption of precision agriculture. Both proximal and remote sensing technologies have been implemented to provide high-density data lay...

Economic Evaluation of Conventional Intensive and Precision Farming Technologies

Proccedings of International Scientific Conference "RURAL DEVELOPMENT 2017", 2018

In Lithuania, besides the usual farming technologies, starting precision agriculture (PA). The basic principle of the PA is to focus technological operations on the conditions located in separate field locations. When there in separate fields is a significant difference in the amount of nutrients in the soil, the distribution of weeds or diseases, then the crop fertilization and maintenance operations must be precisely adapted to these differences. Most importantly, these differences in soil and crops can be captured and converted into correspondingly differentiated instructions for agricultural machinery. This ensures the timely use of appropriate material resources, helps to optimize yields at the lowest cost, reduce environmental pollution and increase economic returns. The purpose of this study is to perform a comparative analysis of economic indicators for spring wheat cultivation by using a usual intensive and PA technologies, and to determine the financial effect. Novelty of ...