Scope and importance, principles and concepts of precision horticulture

1. Scope and importance, principles and
concepts of precision horticulture
Lecture No.: 1

2.  Precision farming or precision horticulture is about doing
the right thing, in the right place, in the right way, at the
right time.
 This approach recognizes site-specific differences within
fields and regulates management actions accordingly.
 Managing crop production inputs such as water, seed,
fertilizer etc to increase yield, quality, profit, reduce waste
and becomes eco-friendly
 concept based on observing, measuring and responding to
inter and intra-field variability in crops
Precision farming

3. Precision farming
• New technologies such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), sensors,
satellites or aerial images and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
are utilized to assess and analyze variations in agricultural and
horticultural production
Precision farming actually is application of technologies and
principles to manage spatial and temporal variability
associated with all aspects of horticultural production
(Pierce and Nowak, 1999).

4. Need of precision horticulture
• For assessing and managing field variability: We know that our
fields have variable yields across the landscape because of
variations to management practices, soil properties and/or
environmental characteristics.
• For doing the right thing in the right place at the right time:
After assessing the variability precision horticulture allows
management decisions to be made and implemented in right
time in right places on small areas within larger fields.
• For higher productivity: Since precision farming, proposes
made management practices, it will definitely increase the yield
per unit of land
• For increasing the effectiveness of inputs: Increased
productivity per unit of input used indicates increased
efficiency of the inputs
• For maximum use of minimum land unit: After knowing the
land status, a farmer tries to improve each and every part of
land and uses it for the production purpose

5. Precision Farming Includes
• Landpreparation
• Inputs (seed,planting material, fertilizeretc.) Irrigation
• Plantprotection
• Harvesting
• Postharvesting
• Storage
• Transportation (cool chainsystems)

6. Components of Precision Farming
•
1. Crop Characteristics : Stage of crop, crop health, nutrient
requirements etc
2. Detailed soil layer with physical and chemical properties, depth,
texture, nutrient status, salinity and toxicity, soil temperature,
productivity potentialetc.
3. Micro-climate data (seasonal and daily) about crop canopy
temperature, wind direction andspeed,humidityetc.
4. Surfaceand sub-surface drainage conditions, Irrigation facilities, water
availability, andother planning inputs of interest
5. Farmmachinery andEquipment equipped with sensors

7. BENEFITS
•
Precision farming not only is potentially more economical,
but it also reduces the amounts of chemicals released into
the environment.
Other benefits:
• Improves crop yield & profit
• Provides better information for making management decision
• Provides more details & useful farm records
• Reduces fertilizer costs
• Reduces pesticide costs
• Reduces pollution

8. Precision farming Models ensure……

9. • PF is useful guidance for adopting the systems of integrated
management of soil health, nutrients, pests, water, energy and
different crop genetic resources.
• The main objective of adopting precision farming in India is
to improve horticultural production, quality of environment
and economic status of the farmers
Precision farming

10. BASIC STEPS IN PRECISION FARMING
1. Assessing variation
2. Managing variation and
3. Evaluation
There are three important issues regarding
precision agriculture evaluation:
•
•
•
Economics
Environment and
Technology transfer

11. Tools in precision farming
horticulture

13. • It is an information and technology-based management system
• These include
– Global positioning systems
– Geographic information systems
– Yield monitoring devices
– Soil, plant and pest sensors,
– Remote sensing and
– Variable rate technologies
• This information and technology for site-specific farming
allows farmers to identify, analyse and manage the spatial and
temporal variability of soil and plants for optimum profitability,
sustainability and protection of the environment.

14. Global Positioning System (GPS)
• The most common use of GPS in horticulture is for yield
mapping and variable rate fertilizer/pesticide applicator.
• The GPS are important to find out the exact location in the
field to assess the spatial variability and site-specific
application of inputs.
• The GPS operating in differential mode are capable of
providing location accuracy of 1 m.

15. Geographical Information System (GIS)
• The GIS is an organized collection of computer hardware,
software, geographical data, and personnel designed to
efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze and
display all forms of geographically referenced information.
• The GIS is the key to extracting value from information on
variability. It is rightly called as the brain of precision
farming
• It can help in horticulture in two ways.
• One is in linking and integrating GIS data (soil, crop, weather
field history) with simulation models.
• Other is to support the engineering component for designing
implements and GPS guided machineries (variable rate
applicators) for precision horticulture.

16. Current PF research in Horticulture
Vigour mapping vineyards to assist with
segregation
Vigour mapped using NDVI or using laser
scanning , relates to important wine quality
characteristics (Brix, pH, bunch number and
weight, berry size) = possible to segregate zones
into more uniform fruit into the winery.
* NDVI – Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
Mapping soil water content and water stress to
schedule irrigation
Localized sensors (eg TDR), linked to
soil/water/plant model, localized water controllers
(eg microsprays, drippers) = water part of field at a
time.
* TDR- Time Domine Reflectometry

17. Current PF research in Horticulture
• Orchard fruit yield maps
– Picking bins identified and grading mapped back to a few
trees in the orchard (eg fruit colour mapped to orchard)
– Enable tracking through cool stores, fertility
management of blocks, etc.
Crop quality prediction
Mild onions segregated for pungency based on sweetness
(Brix>7.5%) and pungency (pyruvate<4 mg/kg)
Predict sugar & pyruvate from crop / soil features during
growth, develop a harvesting pattern to segregate.

18. Opportunities
• Precision horticulture offers:
– Production efficiency – manage inputs to match targets.
Reduced environmental impact by linking inputs to
targets.
– In-field quality prediction – develop and manage
segregations

19. Scope of precision farming in India
• The concept of precision farming is not new for India.
• Farmers try their best to do the things for getting maximum
possible yield with information and technologies available to
them but unless & until total information about their fields
and advanced technologies are available, they cannot do
precision farming in perfect sense.
• In India, major problem is the small field size.
• More than 58 percent of operational holdings in the country
have size less than 1ha.
• Only in the states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat
more than 20 per cent of agricultural lands have operational
holding size of more than four hectare.

20. • Similar implementation can also be carried out on the state farms.
• There is a scope of implementing precision agriculture for crops
like, rice and wheat especially in the states of Punjab and Haryana.
• Commercial as well as horticultural crops also show a wider scope
for precision agriculture in the cooperative farms.
• Nearly two-third arable land in India is rain-fed.
• The crop yields are very low (1t ha-1) and very good potential
exists for increasing productivity of rain-fed Cropping systems.
• When attached fields with the same crop are considered, it is
possible to obtain fields of over 15 ha extent in which similar crop
management are followed.
• Such fields can be considered for the purpose of initiating the
implementation of precision farming.
Scope of precision farming in India

21. Drawbacks of precision farming
• High cost: It has proven difficult to determine the cost
benefits of precision agriculture management. At present,
many of the technologies used are in their infancy, and
pricing of equipment and services is hard to pin down.
• Lack of technical expertise knowledge and technology: The
success of precision agriculture depends largely on how
well and how quickly the knowledge needed to guide the
new technologies can be found (India spends only 0.3% of
its agricultural Gross Domestic Product in Research and
Development)
• Not applicable or difficult/costly for small land holdings
• Heterogeneity of cropping systems and market
imperfections

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