Crop Production Costs, Profits, and Ecosystem Stewardship with Precision Agriculture (original) (raw)
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Farm Profits and Adoption of Precision Agriculture
Precision agriculture (PA) and its suite of information technologies—such as soil and yield mapping using a global positioning system (GPS), GPS tractor guidance systems, and variable-rate input application—allow farm operators to fine-tune their production practices. Access to detailed, within-field information can decrease input costs and increase yields. USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey hows that these PA technologies were used on roughly 30 to 50 percent of U.S. corn and soybean acres in 2010-12. Previous studies suggest that use of PA is associated with higher profits under certain conditions, but aggregate estimates of these gains have not been available. In this report, a treatment-effects model is developed to estimate factors associated with PA technology adoption rates and the impacts of adoption on profits. Labor and machinery used in production and certain farm characteristics, like farm size, are associated with adoption as well as with two profit measures, net returns and operating profits. The impact of these PA technologies on profits for U.S. corn producers is positive, but small.
Sequential Adoption and Cost Savings from Precision Agriculture
Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 2016
Precision agricultural (PA) technologies can decrease input costs by providing farmers with more detailed information and application control, but adoption has been sluggish, especially for variable-rate technologies (VRT). Is it possible that farmers have difficulty realizing these cost savings? Combinations of PA technologies are considered as complements, testing several patterns of PA technology adoption that may show different levels of costs. The USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey of corn producers is used to estimate a treatment-effects model that allows for selection bias. VRT contributes additional production cost savings when added to soil mapping, but not when done with yield mapping alone.
Adoption, Profitability, and Making Better Use of Precision Farming Data
2004
Precision agriculture (PA) technology has been on the market for over ten years. Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), yield monitors, variable rate technologies (VRT) and other spatial management technologies are being used by farmers worldwide, but questions remain about the profitability of the technology and its future. This paper summarizes: 1) data on adoption of PA technology worldwide, 2) review of PA economics studies and 3) efforts to make better use of yield monitor and other sensor data in crop management. The adoption estimates are based on reports by an international network of collaborators. This paper draws on USDA ARMS data to update U.S. PA adoption numbers. The PA profitability summary goes beyond previous reviews by including a large number of publications from the last three years, a more detailed breakdown of results by technology type and new technologies. The data analysis section focuses on efforts to make use of the yield m...
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.
On the Economics of Precision Agriculture: Technical, Informational and Environmental Aspects
2004
The paper presents an integrated framework of biophysical and economic modelling as a novel approach towards precision agriculture research. A theoretical economic model determining the optimal number of precision agriculture management units within a given field of land is presented. The model is expanded to account for the value of the research information provided by precision agriculture researchers. Since the inherent environmental values associated with precision agriculture are often omitted from the economic analysis, an attempt is made to incorporate these values into the model. The versions of the model are empirically tested using the data available.
Precision Agriculture: Trends, Issues, and Application to Production in the U.S
2021
The theme of the Fall 2021 issue of the Western Economics Forum (WEF) is "Precision Agriculture: Trends, Issues, and Application in the U.S." This special issue focuses on precision agriculture (PA) tools and strategies that contribute economic benefit to agricultural and community value chains in the Midwest and Western regions of the United States. Comprised of seven articles, this special issue is divided into three broad categories: a) Data analysis and its implications for incorporating PA into a producer's management strategy, b) Economic implications of PA adoption on a producer's farm management strategy, and c) The role of the retail PA custom service industry in facilitating the producer's PA adoption decision. Beginning with three articles on PA data and data analysis, Luck and Thompson open the data analysis discussion by providing producers a guide to developing on-farm field trials to identify infield soil variability in order to determine the appropriate PA management strategy for row crops. Next, DeLay et al. examine the rate of adoption of PA data collection software by corn and soybean producers in the U.S. Wrapping up the data analysis section, Wang and Wood discuss the application of PA cropping strategies for tree nuts (pecan orchards). The next section includes a pair of articles examining issues associated with the rate of PA adoption. Kolady and Van der Sluis examine the relationship between a producer's adoption of a PA management strategy and the producer's decision to engage in conservation practices on their farm. DeLay and Comstock investigate the relationship between the number of PA technologies adopted by a corn producer and the scale economies of the producer's farming operation using national data. The retail custom PA services industry and its role in the producer's PA adoption decision are discussed in the final two articles included in the themed portion of this issue. First, Fausti et al. discuss the PA literature's view of the role of custom services in overcoming the PA adoption barriers of management complexity, and the financial cost barriers of adopting a PA-based management strategy for crop production. In the second article, Fausti et al. focus on the lack of PA workforce development as a constraint on the custom service industry's ability to expand PA services to agriculture producers. The final article appearing in this WEF special issue is independent of the special issue theme, discussing the development and current status of the cannabis industry in the U.S.
Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2019
Agricultural production can place burdens on natural environments. Profitable crop production practices can have unintended consequences on farm natural resources that are difficult to monitor. This article considers if precision agriculture's (PrecAg) information technologies can influence the rates, and profit implications, of using best management practices (BMPs) to improve on-farm natural resource stewardship. If PrecAg can increase rice yields with better management of inputs, reducing costs, and increasing profits, resource stewardship may also benefit. U.S. national farm-level production data from NASS (USDA), confirm background hypotheses of links between PrecAg use and BMPs. The main objective is then to test these relationships in a single, comprehensive, treatment effects model that accounts for PrecAg use, resource stewardship, and rice-farm costs and profits. Capital investments in equipment and other fixed costs are included as adoption control variables. The sustainable BMP rice production practices considered include conservation tillage and erosion control, nutrient-level monitoring, crop rotations, scouting for weeds and pests, and written planning. Conservation tillage is significant in the model and lowers costs with all three PrecAg technologies, but reduces profits. Erosion control has the reverse effect with all three PrecAg technologies having a significant and positive affect on costs, but also raises profit.
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.
Essays on precision agriculture technology adoption and risk management
2005
Precision agriculture (PA) can be defined as a set of technologies that have helped propel agriculture into the computerized information-based world, and is designed to help farmers get greater control over the management of farm operations. Because of its potential to spatially reduce yield variability within the field through variable rate application of nutrients it is thought to be a production risk management instrument. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) is another production risk management technology that is generating ...