Precision agriculture and information technology

Abstract

As everyone knows, knowledge (along with its less-sophisticated sibling, information) is power. For a long time, detailed knowledge (in agriculture) has been generally inaccessible or was prohibitively expensive to acquire. Advances in electronics, communications, and software over the past several decades have removed those earlier impediments. Inexpensive sensors and microprocessors — coupled with integrating software, mobile power sources, and satellite communications — now enable farmers and natural resource managers to collect vast amounts of geo-referenced data (Auernhammer, 1994; Jahns, 2000). Further downstream processing of that data produces meaningful information and ultimately, knowledge (Udink ten Cate and Dijkhuizen, 1999). A number of this special issue’s papers deal with technologies for information gathering and application, which often appear under the terminology "precision agriculture" and "information technologies".

Citation

Schmoldt, Daniel L. 2001. Precision agriculture and information technology. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 30(2001): 5-7.