How Precision Agriculture Can Save Time and Money

How Precision Agriculture Can Save Time and Money

Precision farming, smart agriculture, use of GPS and field sensors become more popular now a days, farmers adopt these new technologies because they can save both time and money. Precision agriculture also sometimes called satellite or digital farming is basically the use of medium to high resolution images (eg. Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2) and geographic positioning system (GPS) to analyze and monitor the status and health of the crops in the field. 

This is done through the help of GIS and remote sensing software packages for analysis and product derivations such as yield and biomass potential, crop chlorophyll content, plant height and densities, soil moisture and spectral index such as NDVI or Normalized Difference Vegetation index, which is one of the most popular index when it comes to crop analysis and it has a wide range of application.

I have listed a few ways on how precision agriculture works.

Precision Agriculture using Farm Machineries and GPS

The demand for is increasing rapidly due to the continuously growing population in the world and one of the challenge in agriculture is how to increase the agricultural production and sustainability. In spite of the continually growing technologies most of the agriculture sector experienced shortage due to inappropriate management of limited resources. 

One solution to these events is the use of farm machineries employed with geographic positioning system thereby implementing precision agriculture. This method enables a site specific management system by relaying on spatial data this also enables farmers to manage large farm areas with limited manpower. Famous examples of these are the automated planters, fertilizer applicators and sprayers which avoid over application thereby decreasing the negative impacts in the environment.

Precision Agriculture using Free Satellite Images

There are several free satellite images that can be downloaded online and can be use by farmers for precision agriculture but before I mention where to download these images let me explain what are these free images and how to use it for precision agriculture/farming. Basically satellite imagery are images acquired via satellites (eg. Landsat and Sentinel). These satellites are equipped with sensors which are able to capture multispectral image (visible to near-infrared) which are important for agricultural purposes because this will enable us to generate spectral indices such as:

·        Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NVDI)

·        Soil Adjusted vegetation Index (SAVI)

·        Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)

These spectral indices represents the status of the crops in near real time and provide management zones which helps farmers on deciding what areas to prioritize and what areas to keep little attention. 

      Data Sources

·        Landsat Image from United StatesGeological Survey: is one of the famous open source image that you can download in the net today. Landsat image has a 30 meter resolution and consist of multi-spectral bands which you can use for your crop image analysis.

Landsat website

·        Sentinel from Copernicus Open Access Hub: is a mission launched by European Space Agency. Sentinel images can e downloaded for free by signing in or creating an account in the given link above. Sentinel image is consist of 12 spectral bands where 4 of which are in 10 meter resolution (visible to near-infrared) imagine the rich information that you can extract with this free image for different agricultural purposes.

Sentinel Website

·        Diwata 1 from PHL MICROSAT: is first Philippine microsatellite under the PHL-Microsat Program. Although the image distribution is still in its beta phase, individuals coming from non government agencies, research and academic institution are allow to access the image web browser and to download images given that individuals are signed up and proved their affiliation on the said agencies and institutions but once the full operation of this program takes place everyone can access image in this program. Diwata 1 is equipped with High Precision telescope which able to capture high resolution image with a resolution of about 3 meters, its sure that this will become one of the best providers of high resolution image in the future and will provide a wide range of application especially in the agriculture sector in the Philippines. 

PHL MICROSAT Website

Precision Agriculture via Drones

Drones gain popularity more and more now a day whether it’s for photography, recreation and even for agriculture. There are a lot of drones available online that can be use for precision agriculture, but what are the things that drones can do in your farm?

• ·        Tree Count Estimation
• ·        Biomass estimation for yield prediction
• ·        Crop scouting (Insect pest & diseases monitoring)
• ·        Spray application

Agricultural Drone Spraying Sugarcane Field