PRECISION FARMING
PRECISION FARMING MONITORING
THE USE OF DRONES, SENSORS AND SMART SAMPLING
M
onitoring variability using
different imageries of NDVI
(normalised difference vegetation index) is creating remote
awareness and therefore increasing the effectiveness
of advisors on one side, and creating a situation for
wrong interpretation on the other side. The way in
which we utilise this information will either create
or will not create a demand from the agricultural
sector. For example, satellite imagery has been
available to most farmers during the last 10 years
but the producer did not really experience additional value and therefore the demand did not grow
in South Africa.
Going a step further by using NDVI-zones for
smart sampling purposes is potentially creating a
situation for incorrect interpretations and recom
mendations to the farmer if different methods
to create NDVI differ in zones. For example, you
can have the same yield in a certain area, but the
same yield was created by different scenarios in
soil chemical composition and/or soil physical
properties.
Offering a smart sampling option as alternative to
traditional precision farming services, thereby drastically lowering the costs for the client in respect of
a survey versus grid sampling, does create an opportunity for easy marketing of precision farming
services due to the lower costs for the farmer. But
what is the risk to the farmer?
The identification of zones does not reflect varia
bility in soil chemical and physical properties,
your chances for success will decrease by at least
50% and it is not sustainable over the long term
A good return on investment for the client is
therefore at risk
Bringing down the soil volumes to SA laboratories will drastically increase the cost of soil ana
lyses, and more South African soil laboratories
will close, which is exactly what happened in
countries such as Australia where smart sampling (different reasons for doing it) is the way
they do most of their variable rate applications
A combination of the above can have a negative
impact on the successful implementation of
precision farming practices for the client when
it comes to variable rate application of lime and
fertiliser.
Every new method of promoting precision farming
services needs to be tested and evaluated as to
whether it will be worth the client’s while in the
end. To be excited about new services is not a
guarantee that the client’s farming operations will
be more sustainable. We must introduce new
efficiency with a win/win attitude.
Writer: Cobus Burger, Business Manager:
Precision Farming Services – SGS
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