Precision Agriculture

Generally, the farmer or landowner is directly involved in implementing new precision technologies with any associated technology companies. Precision agriculture also depends on the availability and accessibility of third-party datasets or satellite or weather data streams. Therefore, strong collaboration between farmers, farm advisory services (that provide farmers with knowledge and skills), researchers, and policymakers is needed. Often the implementation of this option may require a connection with a regional or national governmental program or association that provides land cover information and resources. Local solutions can also be implemented without external input but may be more costly or require in-house expertise.  

Precision farming technology provides integrated tools for better decision-making in agriculture. Although farmers generally look to adopt precision technologies that reduce costs, precision farming has many benefits that can favour the success of this option. Precision agriculture can help make informed decisions about planting, managing and harvesting, help manage local fertilization, and irrigation quantities. With the right tools, precision techniques can steer machinery, locate and manage pest, diseases or drought and protect the soil from leaching or drying out, thereby saving costs, reducing wasted crops and fuel, and managing the workload. Initiatives that increase farmers’ awareness on these benefits, and knowledge of diverse techniques and skills can favour the actual implementation of this option. 

Despite the many benefits and wide array of precision tools available, precision agriculture still has a very low implementation rate. Some explanations for the low adoption rate have been identified, including high costs of investment and learning, extra work, cost/benefit ratio, doubts in the credibility of the technologies, farmer’s perception of usefulness, ease of use, farmer’s age and education level, and resource availability. The biggest issue/limitation for growers is knowing how to interpret all of the data collected and how to act on it. Results of the EU-funded Demeter project (H2020) revealed that data privacy could be a relevant concern for farmers, worried that third parties would gain ownership of their private data. Lack of resources and high implementation costs were reported as major barriers. Small operators may be left behind from this option without the resources or the proper knowledge, which may have implications for just resilience. 

The purchase cost of the precision agriculture infrastructure and services can be high due to the investments needed to  use of this technology on an individual/farm-based level and the fee associated with the specific service. Time and money are required for training and knowledge provision, expensive or highly specialised machinery or technologies, or a dedicated outsourced service provider. Small farmers in the current situation without common standards often prove unable to fix or adjust equipment, forcing them to risk delays and expenses when returning to manufacturers for appropriate technical support. Costs are associated with the deployment of the system (e.g. hardware and software, training, licensing) and operation (repair, maintenance). There are several known European incentives as precision agriculture, that can support the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy.  

Some cost examples (Farm-europe) include:  

• Weather stations require an investment of between €400 and €2,000.  
• Decision support tools can be free of charge. Those that prescribe the quantities of inputs to be applied from sensors and satellite images of crops have a maximum cost of €20/ha/year.  

• Precision sprayers can vary from €3,000 - €40,000.  
• Machine Guidance (MG) and Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) to gain in precision at the intra-plot scale:  cost varies from around €1,300 - €50,000  
• Weeding robots cost between €25,000 and €80,000. 
• Flow controllers for pivot irrigation systems are the most affordable starting at €1,300 and pivot control irrigation management systems can cost up to €35,000. Drip irrigation costs around €40/ha. 
• Whatever the tool and its cost, training is necessary and can vary between €420 and €1,400. 

Additional costs for the maintenance of machineries and technologies, though not specifically reported, must be considered. 

Using precision technologies reduce environmental degradation and increases fuel efficiency resulting in lowering carbon footprints (synergy with mitigation aspects). Examples include reduced nitrate leaching in cropping systems, reduced groundwater contamination by extracting the spraying regimes and reduced erosion when precise tillage is conducted. The benefits for farmers are saving costs (machinery, inputs) and farm productivity and income. A reduction of wasted seeds and products is also expected. Environmental benefits include reduced eutrophication (due to lower use of nutrients) and pollution (due to lower use of pesticides).  

Moreover, precision agriculture allows for saving water and energy. For example, saving water in high-value fruit and vegetable crops with precision irrigation methods was found to save about €30/ha/year (Balafoutis et al., 2017). The largest potential is expected in drought prone areas as the Mediterranean region. 

The European Commission mentions Precision Agriculture as a way to achieve the goals of the European Ecological Pact, known as “European Green Deal” and the “Farm to Fork Strategy”. The implementation of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), includes new ‘eco-schemes’ which offer a major stream of funding to boost sustainable practices, including precision agriculture. The funding from these programmes is also used to ensure smaller farms all have access to fast broadband internet, which is required for computerised geographical information system (GIS) techniques for the identification system for agricultural parcels and implementation of more precision agriculture techniques. In addition, precision agriculture could enhance the efficient implementation of the CAP via the collection of geo-referenced data on soil characteristics, weather-related indices, and crop status at the land parcel level. 

One year is needed for implementing most technologies, but sometimes training and partnerships between technology providers or services could take longer. The implementation time depends on the technology and budget available. Some technology options require more training or funding than others, but all require a certain training or start-up period before they become fully operational. Thoroughly researching, training and preparing can significantly reduce the implementation time, and work together with experienced users. 

This option includes a wide range of possible techniques with different lifetimes. Precision farming tools are so varied that this depends on the type of hardware/software that is used. Whenever implemented correctly, the software can be adapted in real time and remains relevant as long as the hardware required for data collection remains functional. In this case, the lifetime is dependent almost entirely on the durability of the hardware used in the implementation.