The increase in costs of agricultural inputs is a real challenge in today’s agriculture that significantly reduces farmers’ profit margins. Throughout every year, a farmer tries to bring his land productivity to a point of stability by constantly struggling with the unexpected and managing an even crop growth at his farm, but in the end, he may still have a large share of his working capital spent on input costs as well as irrigation costs and as a result, experience less profit.

The prominent role of irrigation & input costs, along with other main and ancillary costs of agriculture, highlights the need to use new methods and tools that can increase accuracy in agriculture and control and reduce input and irrigation costs & help farmers to have larger profit margins; Methods such as Precision Farming that runs based on satellite imagery & processed data that acts as a cost-effective solution for modern agriculture demands.

Examine and compare areas, apply variable input rates

Experienced farmers always know that the yield is not the same in all parts of their land. However, recent advances in technologies related to precision agriculture have provided a way to map and measure differences in different areas of the farm so that, for each area based on its status and requirements, the necessary measures (Including the optimal use of inputs) are taken. This is the main goal of precision agriculture, to optimize input consumption which over a period reduces input costs and increases productivity by standardizing crop growth throughout the land, and in the long run, reduce the adverse environmental effects of overuse or misuse of inputs.

The experience of precision farming shared by a farmer

Precision agriculture is the result of the development of methods & the latest world technologies that work together to bring more accuracy for agricultural processes & management. In this regard, a wheat farmer who is currently using our service for crop monitoring purposes told us about his personal experience of precision farming & using our easy-to-use platform to monitor his fields during this growing season:

“I have been using Cropinno since the wheat growing season began, and during this time, good results have been obtained by using the information and analysis that system provides in my fields. Information such as monitoring growth, plant greenness, plant strengths and weaknesses, moisture level & so. Also, growth non-uniformity index helps to determine the right amount and type of fertilizer needed anywhere over the field and also helps with the timing of irrigation and fertilizer application.”

According to the non-uniformity map of this farmer’s farm, in which the color spectrum contrast indicates the non-uniformity index, differences in plant growth levels were observed between the lower part of the field (red color spectrum) and the upper part of the field (green color spectrum) and it was determined that wheat is in two different stages of growth process in these different zones. After analysis, the field was divided into two parts in terms of fertilizer consumption; The lower section of the field received the stimulant of seaweed growth enhancer to reach the growth level of other parts, while the upper section of the field, which could not receive irrigation at that period, received the amino acid as foliar application to prevent possible stresses. As a result, these decisions provided better and more even growth conditions for the crop all over the field.

This is actually how precision farming and non-uniformity map of a farmland can help in fertilizer and irrigation decisions, by recognizing the difference in growth levels in different parts of the land to optimally manage consumption, leading the crop to better uniformity in the field and finally, reducing input costs and irrigation, which is undoubtedly one of the most important subjects in the financial matters of agriculture.

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