06 October 2011

Jeff Thurston wonders in his dialogue section in V1 Magazine if the gap between surveying and GIS contributes to lower Precision Farming uptake. He states many people have talked about a gap between surveying technology and geographic information system (GIS) technology over the years. Recent reports of precision farming uptake indicate lower than expected results - all at a time when commodity prices are high and food production is high on the agenda. What are the reasons for these lower uptake rates in the face of positive farm gate revenue in many places, and a future that looks even brighter for food producers, particularly those interested in maximizing production through geospatial and geomatics technologies?

 

Jeff continues: Last week I published an entry indicating that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had indicated lower than expected rates of Precision Farming uptake. Similar reports have been available from Australia where the Western Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) indicated similar responses. And, farmers perspectives on precision farming from Australia, have also been reported recently.

I've spent a few dozen years in agricultural research and have used these technologies in farm operations. The results from the USDA caused me to wonder and explore what is going on and why those results are appearing.

 

Here are some points for consideration:

• The top 10% of producers are the precision farmers in many places. They include early adopters, educated young farmers, those with a keen interest to try new approaches. This means they latch on to GNSS, GIS and remote sensing technologies readily.
• Geospatial speak of a ‘gap' between surveying and GIS and have done so for a long time - with objectives to narrow it. Yet, one might argue that the gap remains wide and has not narrowed - GNSS oriented toward field equipment navigation, while GIS is oriented toward mapping.
• More technologies are entering the farm gate and into the precision farming toolbox - robotics, remote sensing, UAV. Do you think farm producers can keep up?
• How much have we talked about precision farming in-depth? Crop rotations, integrated production management, local-regional scale linkages, combining models, financial systems etc.? And - pushed that to the field?
• While institutions talk about this kind of research for years, how well have they transferred knowledge into field action? And how well do they continue to do so? If technology providers only provide surveying or GIS approaches, then have we only half completed the task?
• My perception is that imagery prices have dropped remarkably, but few food producers use it as regularly as they could.

Read the rest of the article at V1 Magazine

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