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Specific Production Systems:
Economics of Precision Farming Practices
in the Texas High Plains for Cotton,
Grain Sorghum, Corn, and Peanuts
Increased
use of fertilizers, pesticides, and other inputs have contributed
to the enhancement of agriculture's productivity in recent
decades.
Today,
production agriculture is facing many challenges
such as increasing cost of production, shortage of irrigation
water, and increased public concern on the impacts of agricultural
production on the environment.
In the future...
to survive in the highly competitive world market of
agricultural commodities, agricultural producers must produce
high quality products at low prices while using environmentally
sound practices. One
way to address these objectives is to adopt precision farming
technology.
Traditionally, input use
in agriculture has assumed field homogeneity with respect
to soil fertility, soil moisture, pest populations, and crop
characteristics. That is, optimal decision rules of input
use do not account for differences of those characteristics
within fields. Precision farming, precision agriculture, or
site-specific management recognizes the variability of such
factors within fields and seeks to optimize variable input
use under these conditions.
It has been said that precision farming is an advanced information-technology-based
management system designed to identify, analyze and manage
site-soil spatial and temporal variability within fields for
optimum profitability, sustainability, and protection of the
environment.
The development of precision farming
practices -- is closely related to the many new
technologies that have been utilized in agricultural production
in recent years. These new technologies involve microcomputers,
microprocessor based control systems, satellite positioning
technologies, and many kinds of sensors. With the help of
these technologies, variable rate application of fertilizers
and spraying of weeds, spatial soil testing, and yield mapping
are becoming available.
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Principal Investigator:
Eduardo Segarra
Agricultural Economist, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
and Texas Tech University, Lubbock
The
project's overall objective?
Derive optimal decision rules of input
use (irrigation water, fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides)
and evaluate the economic impacts of precision farming practices
in cotton, grain sorghum, corn, and peanut production in the
Texas High Plains. Precision farming optimal decision rules
of input use have already been derived for cotton, grain sorghum,
and corn production.
Results
indicate:
·
Precision farming practices are economically beneficial
as compared to conventional practices in cotton, corn and
grain sorghum production, but widespread use of these practices
will critically depend on their adoption cost.
· The
economic benefits of precision farming practices are not evenly
distributed across fields - in fact, spatial variability of
both yields and profits across fields are magnified under
precision farming practices as compared to conventional practices.
·Precision
farming can effectively be used to identify "management zones"
within fields where the potential for significant improvements
in profits are possible.
What's ahead ...
This project could have significant impacts on
well over 5.0 million acres of cropland in the production
of corn, grain sorghum, peanuts and cotton in the Texas High
Plains. Corn, grain sorghum, and cotton results have been
released to professional and agricultural producers audiences.
Peanut production work is ongoing.
It is anticipated that next year, results applicable to peanut
production will be available. Also, precision farming optimal
decision rules of input use refinements for the other crops
will be made.
For more information about this project,
contact:
Eduardo Segarra, PhD, Ag Economist
Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics
Texas Tech University, MS
42132,
Luboock, TX 79409-2132
PHONE: (806)742-2821
FAX: (806) 742-1099
EMAIL: EDUARDO.SEGARRA@TTU.EDU
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