Precision Agriculture for Sustainability and Environmental Protection

ISBN-13: 9780415504409 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 304 str.

Margaret Oliver; Thomas Bishop; Benjamin Marchant

Opis

Precision agriculture (PA) involves the application of technologies and agronomic principles to manage spatial and temporal variation associated with all aspects of agricultural production in order to improve crop performance and environmental quality. The focus of this book is to introduce a non-specialist audience to the the role of PA in food security, environmental protection, and sustainable use of natural resources, as well as its economic benefits.

The technologies covered include yield monitors and remote sensing, and the key agronomic principles addressed are the optimal delivery of fertilizers, water and pesticides to crops only when and where these are required. As a result, it is shown that both food production and resource efficiency can be maximized, without waste or damage to the environment, such as can occur from excessive fertilizer or pesticide applications. The authors of necessity describe some technicalities about PA, but the overall aim is to introduce readers who are unfamiliar with PA to this very broad subject and to demonstrate the potential impact of PA on the environment and economy.

The book shows how farmers can place sustainability of the environment at the centre of their operations and that this is improved with the application of PA. The range of topics described includes sampling and mapping, weed and pest control, proximal and remote sensing, spatio-temporal analysis for improving management, management zones and water management. These are illustrated with case studies on sampling and mapping, biofuels from sugar cane and maize, paddy rice cultivation, and cotton production.

Spis treści

Part 1: Precision Agriculture and Food Security  1. An Overview of Precision Agriculture  2. The Role of Precision Agriculture in Food Production and Security  3. Improving Food Security Through Increasing the Precision of Agricultural Development  Part 2: Techniques  4. Rational Management Decisions from Uncertain Spatial Data  5. Applications of Remote Sensing in Precision Agriculture for Sustainable Production  6. Proximal Sensing  7. Spatio-temporal Analysis to Improve Agricultural Management  Part 3: Management  8. Site-specific Management and Delineating Management Zones  9. Precision Weed Management  10. Site-Specific Irrigation Water Management  11. The Economics of Precision Agriculture  12. Spatially Distributed Experimentation: Tools for the Optimization of Targeted Management  Part 4: Case Studies  CS1. Sampling and Mapping in Precision Agriculture  CS2. Precision Agriculture in Sugarcane Production  CS3. Precision Rice Farming for Small-Scale Paddy Fields in Asia  CS4. Farmer Perceptions of Precision Agriculture for Fertilizer Management of Cotton  Future Prospects