Word of the Day: precision agriculture

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms |February 2, 2017

precision agriculture Precision agriculture (PA) is an approach to farm management that uses information technology (IT) to ensure that the crops and soil receive exactly what they need for optimum health and productivity. The goal of PA is to ensure profitability, sustainability and protection of the environment. PA is also known as satellite agriculture, as-needed farming and site-specific crop management (SSCM). Precision agriculture relies upon specialized equipment, software and IT services. The approach includes accessing real-time data about the conditions of the crops, soil and ambient air, along with other relevant information such as hyper-local weather predictions, labor costs and equipment availability. Predictive analytics software uses the data to provide farmers with guidance about crop rotation, optimal planting times, harvesting times and soil management. Sensors in fields measure the moisture content and temperature of the soil and surrounding air. Satellites and robotic drones provide farmers with real-time images of individual plants. Information from those images can be processed and integrated with sensor and other data to yield guidance for immediate and future decisions, such as precisely what fields to water and when or where to plant a particular crop. Agricultural control centers integrate sensor data and imaging input with other data, providing farmers with the ability to identify fields that require treatment and determine the optimum amount of water, fertilizers and pesticides to apply. This helps the farmer avoid wasting resources and prevent run-off, ensuring that the soil has just the right amount of additives for optimum health, while also reducing costs and controlling the farm's environmental impact. In the past, precision agriculture was limited to larger operations which could support the IT infrastructure and other technology resources required to fully implement and benefit from the benefits of precision agriculture. Today, however, mobile apps, smart sensors, drones and cloud computing makes precision agriculture possible for farming cooperatives and even small family farms. Quote of the Day "The farming industry would be quick to embrace precision agriculture with assistance from the IoT, using sensor networks and automation to improve productivity and reduce waste in both crop and livestock farming." - Therese Cory   Trending Terms business sustainability cooperative biotechnology predictive analytics IoT drone   Learning Center IoT could be key to farming, says Beecham Research The Internet of Things could be key to the farming industry meeting the challenge of increasing food production by 70% by 2050, says report. Interview: How John Deere uses connectivity to make farms more efficient After pioneering the use of automated vehicle technology 15 years ago, farm equipment supplier John Deere is now going further, with its sights set on efficiency and sustainability, says sales VP Christoph Wigger. IoT technologies find a home down on the farm Whether on the farm or in an ocean oil field, IoT technology plays a critical role. Here are two use cases that demonstrate the value of the technology. Switch from standard BPM for more efficient agriculture Farmers are ramping up standard BPM with iBPM to conserve resources. Weather analytics project taps big data to optimize farm irrigation The Flint River Partnership is testing weather analytics technology as part of a big data project aimed at generating localized weather forecasts for farmers in Georgia. Writing for Business In tropical regions, precision agriculture can use remote sensing to explain why soils _________ nutrients quickly when cultivated. A. lose B. loose Answer       Stay In Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com   Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed!   FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2016 TechTarget. All rights reserved.