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Professional Assignment 1
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]
Professional Assignment 1
Q.1 How is information technology changing the way farmers run their business?
Technological advancements have transformed agriculture. The long journey starting from the invention of the plow to today's analytically driven agriculture, humans have come a long way (Boserup, 2017). Unlike previously, farmers can manage their farms sitting across in an air-conditioned cabin. They don't have to toil in the fields anymore in the harsh glare of the sun. Drone surveillance, smart tractors, and numerous sensors are used to monitor the farms nowadays. A huge amount of data is generated and collected through these smart devices. Farmers can analyze this data to instruct the smart GPS based tractor about how much land to plow. Drones can be used to spray pesticides accurately and efficiently. Numerous sensors are keeping track of the weather conditions and informing the farmers prior to any abrupt weather change. Another important aspect of information technology's impact on agriculture is precision agriculture. Precision agriculture has enabled farmers to sow crops precisely and accurately (Das et.al, 2015). Accurate amounts of fertilizers sprayed save farmers a huge chunk of money. This implies that higher yields are producing. This can be helpful in the fight against global food insecurity. Applying accurate amounts of resources means farmers are less wasteful, which implies that farming is contributing to sustainable development. Furthermore, large analytics firms analyze the huge amount of data from the farmers and make recommendations based on the results generated. For instance, a farmer can be recommended about the number of seeds to use per acre.
Q.2 How do the systems described in the case improve farming operations?
The systems described in the case are dedicated to helping farmers in order to empower farmers. This way farmers can be more efficient and profitable. These systems provide farmers with enough capabilities to track their finances and organize agronomic inputs to maximize performance. Global Positioning System (GPS) has made possible precision agriculture. GPS has enabled farmers to take soil samples and analyze them in order to plant seeds compatible with the soil (Tayari, Jamshid & Goodarzi, 2015). With GPS, accurate field navigation has reduced repetitive practices and made possible to cover maximum ground in lesser time. Farmers can now work during severe weather conditions from their cabins. Certainly, GPS has increased the productivity of the farmers. Next system described in the case is Granular. Granular is a piece of software that enables farmers to oversee the operations and activities of their farms even when they are not present at the farms. The software has incorporated crop models based on data-driven techniques to increase yields. It helps teams to improve their efficiency. Lastly, FieldScript is the system mentioned in the case. FieldScript assists farmers to produce yields of the highest qualities. Increase in yield has been witnessed in areas where FieldScript was not employed previously. FieldScript has been termed as a more eco-friendly and sustainability centered system.
Q.3 How do precision agriculture systems support decision making? Identify three different decisions that can be supported.
Farmers can employ techniques of precision agriculture to increase productivity and enhance resource efficiency. This results in a decrease in cost, increase in quality yield, and a more sustainable environment. Farmers in developed countries use technologies like satellite imagery and geospatial tools to support decision making (Schmedtmann & Campagnolo, 2015). Data collected from these tools is analyzed with respect to different scales. Soil and nutrient quantities may differ from field to field and area to area. Precision agriculture lets farmers analyze the soil quality of their farmlands, prepare an assessment of the seeds that should be planted and the amount of water and fertilizers that would be used (Sona et.al, 2016). Three different decisions that precision agriculture can support or influence are mentioned next. First, solid preparation was considered a challenging task prior to the incorporation of technology with farming. However, this activity has been simplified. Tools like FieldScript collects data on the fertility index of the soil. The amount of moisture present in the soil can also be detected. This results in farmers taking decisions to prepare a seed type that withstands the vagaries of the weather. Second, using John Deere tractors' section control, farmers can ensure accurate placement of seeds. This results in farmers taking decisions to estimate seed count that would be sufficient. Wastage of seeds is also reduced using this technology. Lastly, Swath Control Pro, a drone that provides farmers to keep an eye on their farmland. But there is much to this drone. This drone could help is spraying pesticides over the crops. It can identify the species of the pest and lets farmers decide which type of pesticide spray should be used.
References
Boserup, E. (2017). The conditions of agricultural growth: The economics of agrarian change under population pressure. Routledge.
Das, J., Cross, G., Qu, C., Makineni, A., Tokekar, P., Mulgaonkar, Y., & Kumar, V. (2015, August). Devices, systems, and methods for automated monitoring enabling precision agriculture. In 2015 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) (pp. 462-469). IEEE.
Schmedtmann, J., & Campagnolo, M. (2015). Reliable crop identification with satellite imagery in the context of common agriculture policy subsidy control. Remote Sensing, 7(7), 9325-9346.
Sona, G., Passoni, D., Pinto, L., Pagliari, D., Masseroni, D., Ortuani, B., & Facchi, A. (2016). UAV multispectral survey to map soil and crop for precision farming applications. In Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences Congress: International Archives of the Photogrammetry Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences Congress: 19 July(Vol. 41, pp. 1023-1029). International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).
Tayari, E., Jamshid, A. R., & Goodarzi, H. R. (2015). Role of GPS and GIS in precision agriculture. Journal of Scientific Research and Development, 2(3), 157-162.
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