Date: 27/08/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Major crop-cropping patterns in various parts of the country, – different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport, and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers.

Key Phrases: Precision Farming, scouting, monitoring, tech-driven solutions, crop yield, Testing soil condition and fertility, protecting from weeds and pests, forecasting weather, Optimizing irrigation and fertilization, profitable and sustainable farming practices.

Why in News?

• Increasing crop yields has been the bane of every farmer. Farming communities worldwide have researched, experimented, and discussed extensively what factors affect crop yield the most and how they can assure an increased crop yield per acre.
• Now, with a looming food security crisis, burgeoning world population, global supply chain disruptions, and dwindling natural resources, the concern for increasing crop yield has become global.

Precision Farming:

• As old solutions - more fertilizers and pesticides - become obsolete and new agrarian challenges surface, there are also new technologies and sciences to address and overcome these concerns.
• Among these tech-driven solutions is precision farming, a scientific approach to farm management that leverages high-tech sensors and analytic tools to optimize crop and soil health while ensuring profitability and sustainability.

Why precision farming?

• To increase agriculture productivity
• Prevents soil degradation
• Reduction of chemical application in crop production
• Efficient use of water resources
• Dissemination of modern farm practices to improve the quality, quantity, and reduced cost of production
• Developing favourable attitudes
• Precision farming changing the socio-economic status of farmers

How do Precision Technologies increase crop yield and agrarian performance?

• Regular scouting, and monitoring:
  • From sowing seeds to harvesting, numerous problems can arise on farmland that directly impacts crop yield.
  • A farmer with acres of fields cannot scout acre by acre as it is time-consuming, laborious, and ineffective.
  • Given how critical crop scouting is, precision farming provides farmers with innovative tools and technologies to monitor their crops.
  • These include in-field wireless sensors, aerial drones, and satellites that eliminate farmers’ grunt work and provide them round-the-clock crop and field insights.
  • Consequently, farmers can monitor multiple crops and fields, follow their growth and health status and take timely interventions to increase crop yield. 
• Forecasting weather:
  • Weather conditions greatly influence the development of plants and ultimately, crop yield.
  • Considering how climate change affects different regions across the globe, it becomes vitally important to forecast uncontrollable weather factors to take preventive measures.
  • Precision technologies offer weather insights such as humidity, temperature, wind speed, etc., along with accurate forecasts, enabling farmers to protect their crops from extreme weather conditions, decide on farming practices in advance and mitigate the damages.
  • Precision farming provides farmers with current, historical, and future weather analytics to make informed decisions and increase crop yield.
• Optimizing irrigation, and fertilization:
  • Just as much as the weather is crucial in determining the fate of crop yield, so are irrigation and fertilization. A surplus or deficit of either can significantly affect the crop yield.
  • Consequently, farmers who aim to increase their crop yield must deploy a streamlined irrigation and fertilizer application system.
  • Precision farming gathers insights from in-field sensors to analyse soil moisture, leaf wetness, crop growth, etc., and recommend to farmers when and how to irrigate their fields.
  • Precision technologies identify the areas that require soil fertilization more than others so farmers can use fertilizers selectively and maximize crop yield. 
• Testing soil condition, and fertility:
  • Perhaps there is no other factor as crucial to crop yield as soil fertility.
  • Soil fertility influences a farmer’s decision to grow one plant or other and its cost.
  • To increase their crop yields, farmers must closely monitor their soil condition and quality throughout the growing season.
  • Precision technologies employ wireless sensors that monitor soil health, such as pH levels, moisture, temperature, salinity, etc., to allow farmers to gain insights into soil fertility.
  • Such a comprehensive analysis enables farmers to allocate minerals, fertilizers, and irrigation accordingly and maximize their crop yield. 
• Protecting from weeds, and pests:
  • Agrarians cannot maximize their crop yield unless they minimize the impact of weeds, pests, or diseases.
  • A single weed or pest infestation can spread like wildfire from field to field if overlooked.
  • While physical inspection acre by acre can be a herculean task, precision farming allows farmers to sit back and supervise their crops from their screens.
  • Depending on the problem, farmers use several measures such as herbicides, insecticides, desiccants, fungicides, etc., to protect their crops and maximize their yield.
  • With timely area-specific alerts, farmers can protect their crops from weeds, pests, and diseases. 

Drawbacks of precision farming

• High cost
• Lack of technical expertise knowledge and technology
• Not applicable or difficult/costly for small land holdings
• Heterogeneity of cropping systems and market imperfections

Conclusion:

• As natural and manmade calamities hover over the horizon, precision technologies can pave the way for profitable and sustainable farming practices, which are the need of the hour.
• With precision technologies, farmers can make the best of accurate allocation of resources, minimum agrarian efforts, and timely alerts and analytics to maximize crop yields and secure the future of future generations and the planet. 

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. As new agricultural challenges emerge and old solutions become obsolete, how can precision technology help farmers increase yields? Explain.