Despite a variety of modern advancements such as new seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers, the agricultural industry is still suffering from a lot of inefficiencies and waste. After all, today, farmers use the best seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers that have been created after many decades of intense research. But there’s another frontier of farming technology that farmers have begun to tackle in the last few years – precision agriculture. It encompasses a wide range of new farming methods and technologies that help agriculture professionals to improve the precision with which they apply chemicals, sow fields, water plants, and conduct other farming operations. But like any other technology, precision farming methods require time and money to implement, so it’s important to understand what benefits you can expect by improving agricultural precision on your farm. In this article, we will talk about 6 main advantages:
Lower operating costs
Since precision agriculture methods allow farmers to minimize fertilizer, seed, and herbicide use, they cause a significant reduction in operational costs.
More profits
By reducing the farm’s operational costs and increasing harvests, farmers can maximize their profits without acquiring additional land or expanding their workforce. For instance, you can save 120 Euros per hectare simply by installing a FieldBee autosteer device on your tractor.
Better sustainability
As mentioned above, precision farming techniques allow farmers to reduce the use of fertilizers and other chemicals in their fields by ensuring that they are applied in the necessary amounts and only to the crops that need them. This helps reduce the negative impact of farming on the environment and preserve the quality of land.
Increased harvests
One way to improve agriculture precision is to perform a detailed analysis of soil in different sections of the fields and adjust the types and amounts of fertilizers used in these sections, types of crops grown in them, irrigation frequency, etc. This can result in a significant increase in harvests.
In addition, precise autosteer systems can help farmers operating agricultural machinery work along the same lines in the field with very high precision, thus preventing crops from being lost or cut during each operation. Crop losses that occur without such systems can cause up to a 20-30% decrease in yield.
In addition, precise autosteer systems can help farmers operating agricultural machinery work along the same lines in the field with very high precision, thus preventing crops from being lost or cut during each operation. Crop losses that occur without such systems can cause up to a 20-30% decrease in yield.
Higher land value
Improved sustainability, higher harvests, and smarter use of resources significantly boost land values.
Accurate harvest prediction
After collecting precise information about field operations, farmers can use advanced AI and big data analysis technologies to get accurate predictions of their crop harvests in the current year long before harvest time begins. This can allow farm owners to make strategic business and marketing decisions to maximize their profits.
Concluding words
This list of advantages is in no way exhaustive. As new agriculture precision technologies such as agriculture drones and automatic machinery continue to emerge, farmers will gain even more tools that they can use to run more efficient, profitable, and eco-friendly operations.