How Precision Agriculture is Changing the Farming Industry

To the average eye, crop fields look very simple and low tech: aligned rows of plants, a few tractors, and some farmers to work the land. But the methods and systems used to control these fields happen to be much more complex and thought out than one would expect. For farmers, the months leading up to harvest time is the most crucial time period of their practice. Farmers mainly farm their crops based on predictions and past harvesting experiences. Problems develop due to various unpredictable factors that come into play while preparing the land, such as soil conditions, weather, and pest damage. For these reasons, many farmers have begun to turn to a new practice that is known as precision agriculture. Precision agriculture is the future of farming, it is the use of technology to micromanage fields while coping with the variables that endanger their crops. These farmers use technologically advanced systems ranging from digital yield monitors to global positioning system (GPS) devices that connect information about soil properties, weather conditions, and pest control to specific points on a map. By empowering the farmer to accurately manage his or her fields, precision agriculture will grow more food using fewer resources than ever.

Efficiency and productivity are the main goals of farming. Before the tractor was invented it took nearly 40 hours to plant and harvest about 100 bushels of corn. Today the same amount of corn will take around 3 hours at a maximum. The invention of the tractor altered societies all over the globe by allowing a majority of the workforce to move to cities and specialize in careers outside of agriculture. The mass amount of farmers are no longer needed; minimizing the 41 percent of the U.S. workforce who were employed in agriculture in 1900 down to a low 1.9 percent in 2000. Now farming will inevitably experience another revolution in response to another technological advancement: computers.

Economist and Futurist Steven Goldberg gives his insight on how Precision Agriculture changes the farming industry:

The theory of precision agriculture was first seen in the United States in the 1980’s. Researchers in the University of Minnesota experimented with lime inputs in their crop fields to keep the pH levels of the soil at the high, healthy level. This was around the same time that the practice of grid sampling emerged, which was the technique used to discover the first inputs of developing maps for fertilizers and pH corrections. Yield sensors and GPS receivers have continuously been advancing in technology ever since. This technique is used nationwide, from the mass agricultural farmers to the mainstream locals. All types of farmers are trying to maximize their profits by using minimal resources in areas that are found to be in need fertilizers and specific chemical treatments. This technique allows the farmer to adjust the fertilizers rate across the crops based on the need for more fertilizer, which is identified by the GPS guided grid or through zone sampling. Fertilizer that would have been wasted in unneeded areas will now be placed in areas that are in need, thereby saving money and maximizing efficiency. Precision farming is beginning to create a continuous global growth in farming efficiency.

Crop fields are usually massive pieces of land that stretch for miles and need numerous staff members to keep it running somewhat efficiently. Even the slightest inefficiency in a farming operation can increase the costs and amount of resources used in the process of farming the land. If a tractor were to be driven just a few inches off track, it would waste not only seeds by seeding those unwanted few inches, but also all the resources that go along with growing those seeds. Additional resources being used need to be taken into consideration as well, such as water, fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides.

Computers to the rescue. Advances in technology allow GPS to deal with all the minute details of farming while significantly cutting down the chances of human error. Instead of a farmer having to deal with specific guideposts and map points, precision agriculture brings us tractors that communicate and are guided by satellite. There is almost no need for human labor on crop fields anymore since this new line of tractors drive themselves. The GPS is connected to a control system that drives the tractor, so all the farmer has to do is sit along for the ride and make sure there are no technological difficulties. According to an AGWEEK news article, farmers who have made the switch to GPS tractors have experienced an increase in profit and a decrease in costs and stresses that come along with their jobs.

Besides for technological advances, precision agriculture brings advancements to the methods and thinking process of how a farmer works his or her land. In past years, a crop field was treated as a singular unit: if it were time to treat the land, the entire land would be treated. In reality, not every part of the land needs the same amount of water, herbicides, and pesticides. This new movement of farming brings us variable rate technologies that regulate the amount of water and chemicals distributed to the crops according to the needs of that specific region. In the past it was almost impossible to distinguish the sub regions of the field that needed more or less water or chemicals by simply observing the land.  Nowadays, crop fields are much larger and cannot be treated with simple hands-on-evaluations. Farmers are in need of more advanced technologies that can cover thousands of acres of land. In order for farmers to uphold profitable crop fields, they must gather and record a tremendous amount of information. This is where remote sensing comes into play.

Remote sensing is the ultimate information gathering system for a farmer today. This system can gather information in a speedy and ample fashion. Images taken from either satellites or aircrafts are referred back to the farmer’s monitor in multi- spectral quality: providing the farmer with a wide range of information in respect to their fields. These images can reveal comparative levels of specific chemicals, such as clay, calcium, and silt in the soil. This information allows the farmer to determine the appropriate amount of water and chemicals that need to be applied in that region by plugging in data into a computer that calculates the amount of resources needed. After the computer processes these calculations, automated sprayers modify their functions as the GPS tractor moves across the field, alleviating complex and difficult decisions the farmer would have to make.

A University of Maryland Communications major speaks on precision agriculture:

Many argue that remote sensing data is too expensive and sporadic.  For this reason, many farmers gather and work together in order to afford the costly equipment, which can span over numerous farms. Another problem is the fact that without remote sensing, these fields would be scanned daily as opposed to aircraft or satellite data being offered only once every few days. In response to this inconvenience, agricultural companies created a sensing system to attach to the tractor that will read the field through satellite reception as the tractor moves.

The main advantage of precision agriculture is clearly the increase in profitable margins. A farmer, who can afford to adopt the equipment, will on average save 6 dollars per acre. In 2009, precision agriculture technologies saved Alabama farmers over 10 million dollars. This benefits the environment as well. By only treating sites that are in need of chemicals, levels of pollution and runoff experience major decreases. Through the use of advanced GPS tractors, computer software, and remote sensing imagery, mass food farming is going to experience greater efficiency and use of fewer resources. These benefits will help fight world starvation while helping nations’ economies boom, specifically in the agriculture department. A century ago, the tractor changed the structure of our society and the way and rate we received our produce. We have now hit another turning point in the agricultural industry with the use of advanced computers and imagery. According to Heritage High School agriculture teacher, Mike Shirey, “agriculture is something that is constantly changing.” Who knows what the world will experience in the next few decades and how it will once again change the way we live, eat, and think.

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Interview with Mr. Goldberg on Precision Farming

What does Precision farming technology bring to agriculture today?

Steven Goldberg, futurist and economist gives his outlook on Precision Farming:

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A Brief History of Precision Farming

The theory of precision agriculture was first seen in the United States in the 1980’s. Researchers in the University of Minnesota experimented with lime inputs in their crop fields to keep the ph levels of the soil at the high, healthy level. This was around the same time that the practice of grid sampling emerged which was the technique used to discover the first inputs of developing maps for fertilizers and pH corrections. Yield sensors and GPS receivers have continuously been advancing in technology ever since. This technique is used nationwide, from the mass agricultural farmers to the mainstream locals who are trying to maximize profits by using money only in areas that need fertilizer. This technique allows the farmer to adjust the fertilizers rate across the crops based on the need for more fertilizer, which is identified by the GPS guided Grid or through Zone Sampling. Fertilizer that would have been wasted in areas that don’t need it will now be placed in areas that are in need, thereby saving money and maximizing efficiency. Precision farming created efficiency on a global level and continues to rise at a steady pace. The development of GPS and variable-rate spreading techniques changed precision farming management practices for the better.

 1)    What are the regular costs for these precision-farming techniques and do farmers prefer this new strategy of precision farming?

 2)    How many farmers have adapted this new strategy and what has been the overall feedback to the change in farming?

What is Metcalfe's Law and where do we see it today?

 During the 1980’s Robert Metcalfe, co- inventor of the Ethernet presented his law of networks: originally presented in terms of “compatible communicating devices.” Only later was this law carried over and applied to users and networks. Originally Metcalfe’s law was intended to describe Ethernet purchases and connections through devices such as telephones and fax machines. Metcalfe’s Law states that the value/usefulness of a network increases as the square of the total number of its users. This merely means that as the amount of users or people on a network increases, the more useful that network becomes.

                                ‘Network Effect’ for Physical Networks

Metcalfe’s law can also be applied to business management and economics. Companies looking to merge together can use this law to measure the values of certain networks based on the amount of users within the network. Metcalfe’s law portrays one of numerous network effects of communication technologies. The law shows us effects within networks such as the World Wide Web, the Internet, and social networking. We are able to break down and come to more of an understanding of how the Internet works through applying Metcalfe’s law. Using mathematics, the law can break down the encoded connections within a network and express these connections in numbers that are understood easier than through computer bits.

The law could be understood with the common fax machine example. A single fax machine alone is pointless and has no use at all. But every fax machine that is added to a network, will increase the value of every fax machine within the network because the overall number of users in the network increases: increasing the amount of people each user can receive or send documents to using their fax machine. We can relate this theory or “law” to social networks. The more people in a social network, the more valuable the service becomes to the network as a whole. You will have more power and value if you are in a large (nationwide or worldwide) network, rather than a network of a few users. Look at Facebook for an example. The more friends you have on Facebook, the more influence and feedback you have and will get when you are active on the website. If you have 5 friends on Facebook your network is small with few user and you have little value, influence, and power. If you have 5,000 friends you can be influential and effective in an easier, more efficient way within your large network. Blogs and websites such as the popular Twitter and Facebook are the modern day textbook definition of this law. According to a Princeton study “forty five percent of Americans in 2005 said the Internet had played a huge role in a major decision in their life as a result of this social networking.” Decisions such as buying a home or a car or finding and choosing a career are all credited to large networks and networking activities. Connecting networks together is much more powerful than two separate networks working individually.  


 Networking is a powerful tool that has endless effects. Metcalfe’s law has the right idea that the larger your network is the more use it has. Weather it be 5,000 Facebook friends within your social network or 5,000 fax machines in a corporate network, the more users in your network the more use you have for it and the more value it holds. The powers to a network are endless and almost immeasurable in our time and day. It is becoming nearly impossible to track the ripple effects of networks since some networks can become so vast. Metcalfe’s law measures only the potential amount of users or contacts in a network: the technological aspect of the network. On the other hand his law will never be able to measure how many users are in contact about a specific network. There are always positive and negative aspects of large networks. Jobs, relationships, life choices, opportunities, and even social gatherings can be credited to a large social network. If a large network is used incorrectly or abused, certain networks can infringe on privacy, instigate public embarrassment, and cause harm to a mass amount of people in a blink of an eye.

The Consolidation Epidemic

      Digital media is likely to move towards being more corporate, commercialized, and centrally controlled medium. This shift in direction is likely to occur due to the ongoing increase of oligopolies. Digital media is continuously being consolidated. Concentration of media ownership is becoming more and more common. The large, powerful, and wealthy owners create these media enterprises. These media enterprises become large, global media organizations which are publicly owned by  shareholders. The future of digital media is going to always come down to how much money is able to be made.

Decades ago, digital media was not as important nor dominant as it is in today's technological era. As we become more dependent on technology, we allow the few, yet powerful media giants to take over digital media. As these large corporations come together and knock out smaller, weaker competitors, they gain an un-doubtful dominance over the digital media market. Hard copy media, such as newspapers, magazines and books are becoming more and more obsolete. Current generations rely mainly on the internet
                Media Consolidation
and other forms of digital media, making it almost impossible for new competitors to enter the market. Audiences want their information now and instanly after news occurs. These audiences alreasy have their sources which they contunously check in with hourly. These sources are commonly the large, consolidated powers of the digital media.

       Yes, it is true that digital media is becoming cheaper and easier to get one's word out to the public, but why would one trust a private, small-time source over a large, powerful, trust-worthy source such as CNN, which consolidated with Time Warner Cable. CNN is a world wide news source that takes over the market, giving no light to private, non-consolidated sources. Sources similar to CNN have enormous resources bases working around the clock all year.

         This means the future of digital media is becoming more centrally controlled by the few powerful corporations that we are all familiar with.

Large media corporations do, and will continue to dominate the digital media market. As these giant companies continue to consolidate, they become more powerful in the market through shareholders, and other means of becoming wealthier. This further feeds their power and allows them to continue to take over smaller companies in the market, knocking out any competition in their way of digital media dominance.

        We have experienced the Facebook take over the past few years and have witnessed its ongoing climb in power and digital dominance. Facebook is now talking about creating a search engine which would threaten large companies such as google. Who knows who Facebook can consolidate with in the future. We may not hear of yahoo in upcoming decades due to consolidation and the deepening of the commercialized media we are currently experiencing.

Lack of competition in digital media