According to research findings, by 2030, the precision agriculture market will be worth $20.84 billion, with a CAGR of 12.8% during that time. Precision (satellite) farming presents a whole new tech-oriented approach to running an agribusiness and guarantees the most optimal health and productivity of crops and livestock.
With these numbers in mind, the adoption of agricultural tech is increasing. Almost half of the global agriculture workforce prefers at least one type of intelligent farming technology in their workflow. As such, precision agriculture mapping software will soon gain a foothold in the market.
What is Agriculture Mapping?
Agriculture mapping is a precision agriculture technique that allows farmers to create detailed maps of their property. These maps usually contain land boundaries, locations of buildings, fences, gateways, and water pipes located on a farm. Farmers can also record the crops planted in different sections of their fields and details of operations carried out in those fields. Farmers can also use agriculture drones, weather monitoring stations, moisture sensors, soil monitoring technology, and other precision farming devices to record more information about their land and crops on field maps.
Some agriculture mapping softwares work hand in hand with drones. The drones need to be programmed properly so that they perform efficiently. The drones help carry out tasks that are difficult to complete manually. Even if those tasks can be conducted manually, they might not be as effective as being carried out by drones. The drones can carry out tasks such as spraying pesticides, fertilizers, etc. and monitoring and evaluating an area efficiently and with little labour involved.
What are The Different Types of Precision Farming Applications?
Observing and responding promptly to the variability in crops, farm fields, and livestock are the cornerstones of precision farming. Many agricultural applications famous in the industry represent digital agriculture technology in diverse forms. Their rising popularity is mainly because they may boost production while lowering agriculture’s adverse environmental effects. Here are the main types of precision agriculture applications in more detail!
Variable Rate Application
VRA is a viable technological method for the automated application of materials on a specific terrain using GPS, sensors, and map data, based on the varying requirements across the crop or soil Satellites, drones and hyperspectral agriculture imaging are just a few examples of the technology used in VRTA to maximize crop production best.
Satellite-Based Application
Satellite images contain the latest information on the farming field’s health. This is achieved because of the high resolution of modern satellite imagery for agriculture. Such a precision agriculture software product examines the true worth of agricultural land. In addition, it allows agribusinesses to make crucial decisions that directly affect their yield outcomes.
Soil Mapping Platform
With high-quality soil mapping, precision agriculture is complete. The soil mapping platforms need various sensors and geo-processing to examine the physical and chemical parameters of the soil strata. This data is used to carry out real-time map monitoring, data fusion, QA, prescription writing, and input savings.
Site-Specific Crop Management System
SSCM is an idea in smart agriculture that centers on calculating, controlling, and responding to the variability of crop yields. Using precise GPS and site-specific observations, most existing SSCMs quantify spatially altering field conditions.
AI-Powered Application
With AI advances, controlling agricultural output with innovative precision farming technology is much easier. For example, such applications can alter the watering and feeding of plants by employing image recognition technology. Drones and other aerial systems are another agricultural innovation. Using IoT devices, such apps also help regulate essential information on soil and climate conditions.
What Makes Agriculture Software so Important?
Thanks to crop production history analysis, agricultural software is significantly transforming farmers’ jobs, allowing them to make better decisions and use less water, fertilizer, or pesticide. In addition, as a result of big data, farmers can obtain timely information about pests and weed outbreaks, allowing them to apply pesticides only once instead of multiple times during the growing season.
Crop management software impacts all aspects of agriculture. It spans the entire spectrum of farm yield optimization, food safety management, supply chain visibility, and global trade policy analysis; to animal welfare policy. It has all been accomplished using machine learning algorithms to identify at-risk animals early enough to monitor their health based on predictive models mapping out potential sources of infection on cattle farms in Europe.
The use of agricultural software by farmers is aimed at increasing yield. Big data describes large datasets gathered from different sources, including satellites, tractor sensors, any livestock tags. These datasets provide much information about agricultural production without requiring extensive manual labour. This is considered from soil conditions to weather patterns to fertilizer levels.
Sometimes, these big data sets also contain precise geographic coordinates associated with each piece of information captured by the sensor networks, which allows for detailed analysis at this level as well.
Final Thoughts
The promise of innovation in the agriculture sector is becoming more and more evident as it completely redefines the modern outlook of the sector.
Though challenging, creating precision agriculture technology helps to meet the needs of agribusinesses and the growing food needs of an increasing population everywhere.
Having expertise in both agriculture and precision farming opens up many great opportunities for farmers and agricultural companies to scale their businesses and address the globalization of food production.
SoilOptix® offers innovative solutions to take your soil mapping to the next level. Visit www.soiloptix.com to know more.