ICT in Precision Agriculture – diffusion of technology

Precision Agriculture (PA) is the management of spatial and temporal variability of the fields. This management concept incorporates a range of management as well as ICT tools to assess and treat the variability within the field. The adoption and diffusion of PA is discussed in this chapter. PA has been practiced over the last 15 years mostly in North America and Northern Europe. Despite its promises, PA has not yet managed to be adopted widely by farmers. This chapter’s results are based on the findings of six mail surveys, focus groups and personal interviews with PA practitioners in the UK, Denmark and the USA over six years (1998-2003). The information related to ICT adoption in PA is presented, including software and hardware aspects, data ownership, data handling, data interpretation, internet and e-mail use, as well as information preferences to invest and practice in PA. It is a common belief that the use of PA technologies has been tremendously improved over the years. However, findings from these studies showed that lack of agronomic and technical skills are key problems for adopting PA practices and there is an urgent need for holistic decision support systems. Moreover, compatibility between hardware and software, as well as user friendliness and particularly time consumption are for many users a serious impediment for PA adoption. An overview of Precision Agriculture Precision agriculture applications and trends The recent advances in information and telecommunication technologies have allowed farmers to acquire vast amounts of site-specific data for their fields, with the ultimate aim being to reduce uncertainty in decision-making (National Research Council, 1997; Blackmore, 2000). Precision Agriculture (PA) or site-specific crop management can be defined as the management of spatial and temporal variability at a sub-field level to improve economic returns and reduce environmental impact (Blackmore et al., 2003). Within the concept of PA the main activities are data collection and processing and variable rate applications of inputs. The tools available consist of a wide range of techniques and technologies from information and communication technology as well as sensor and application technologies, farm management and economics.