How Precision Agriculture Can Solve the Problem of High Fertilizer Prices - Agremo (2024)

FAQs

How Precision Agriculture Can Solve the Problem of High Fertilizer Prices - Agremo? ›

Precision agriculture can help growers get more yield with less input, by providing field-specific insights and enabling variable-rate application of nutrients. Instead of using broad regional recommendations for growing a crop variety, the farmer makes decisions informed by actual crop status in their fields.

By providing a variety of data on crop- and site-specific plant nutrition, soil health and crop status and yields, precision agriculture helps farmers to monitor, manage and apply nutrients more accurately.

Precision agriculture technologies can improve resource management through the precise application of inputs, such as water, fertilizer, and feed, leading to more efficient agricultural production.

There are three basic practices to reduce synthetic fertilizer use to consider: perennial pasture and crops, cover crops in rotation for annual crops, and good grazing management for livestock producers. These practices build soil carbon, which is the key to fostering soil health and plant fertility.

Precision agriculture focusses on improving nutrient use efficiency at the appropriate scale requiring (1) appropriate decision support systems (e.g. digital prescription maps), and (2) equipment capable of varying application at these different scales, e.g. the footprint of a one-irrigation sprinkler or a fertiliser ...

Use of Precision Techniques in Sustainable Land Management

This reduces water consumption and minimizes nutrient runoff, safeguarding water quality and aquatic ecosystems.

Precision agriculture leverages technologies to enhance sustainability through more efficient use of land, water, fuel, fertilizer, and pesticides. Essentially, farmers who use precision agriculture technologies use less to grow more, reducing both cost and environmental impact.

Precision farming allows farmers to be more precise in their use of resources, leading to higher crop yields and cost savings. Techniques like site-specific planting, variable rate application, and crop monitoring are just a few examples of how precision farming is making farming more efficient and sustainable.

Increased efficiency: Precision farming techniques allow farmers to optimise their use of resources such as fertilisers and pesticides. By precisely targeting inputs based on specific crop needs, farmers can reduce wastage and improve resource efficiency, leading to cost savings and environmental benefits.

How can we solve the problem of fertilizer? ›

More efficient use of animal manure and greater use, in rotations, of nitrogen-fixing crops – such as legumes which convert nitrogen from the air into a form that is biologically useful – will be crucial to replace synthetic nitrogen as part of the process of rebuilding soil fertility.

Excess nutrients can cause harmful algal blooms (HABs) in freshwater systems, which not only disrupt wildlife but can also produce toxins harmful to humans. Fertilized soils, as well as livestock operations, are also vulnerable to nutrient losses to the air.

While precision agriculture technologies, such as variable rate fertilizer applications and yield monitoring, have been available since the 1990s, only 27 percent of U.S. farms or ranches used precision agriculture practices to manage crops or livestock, based on 2023 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reporting.

Precision agriculture provides a means to monitor the food production chain and manage both the quantity and quality of agricultural produce.

Unlike with PA, the focus of smart farming is not on precise measurement or determining differences within the field or between individual animals. The focus is rather on access to data and the application of these data – how the collected information can be used in a smart way.

Precision fertigation is a process of applying water-soluble fertilizer to the root plant along with water in a simplified way, with the goal to provide the adequate amount of water and nutrients directly to the root zone.

To grow healthy crops full of nutrients, farmers need to ensure they have healthy soil. Without fertilizers, nature struggles to replenish the nutrients in the soil. When crops are harvested, important nutrients are removed from the soil, because they follow the crop and end up at the dinner table.

At Planting. During planting, fertilizer is applied below the soil surface close to the seed row. Often, the fertilizer is placed 1 to 2 inches below (or below and to the side) of the seed row. In cool, wet areas, a “starter application” of fertilizer is placed in a subsurface band to boost seedling growth.

Of course, fertilizers are especially important when it comes to agriculture, and are responsible for boosting crop yields. Fertilizer application is believed to have been responsible for at least 50 percent increase in crop yield in the 20th century, according to an article published in Agriculture in 2022.