Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Introduction
Hermann J. Heege
Sustainable and thus also economical farming requires precise adaptation to the
natural and economic conditions. The irradiation of the sun, the natural water supply,
the soil properties and the demand of the market just are not uniform at all.
Even within small regions or within a farm, the soil qualities or the slope of the
fi elds can be different. Farmers have adapted their practices to this for centuries.
However, the differences existing within single fi elds also deserve attention.
Within fi elds, there certainly are differences in the soil properties, in the slope, in the
water supply and consequently in the development of crops in many cases. But as
long as farming operations were done manually or by means of small implements,
the farmers succeeded rather easily to adjust to these differences.
Yet this situation has changed fundamentally in many areas of the globe, where
now machines with a working width of up to 40 m operate in fi elds that are much
larger than those of the past. Under these conditions, the farmer has lost very much
in immediate contact with the soil and the crop. The high capacity machinery treats
large fi elds in a uniform way. This method cannot be regarded as being sustainable,
since in most cases neither the soil nor the crop are uniform within a fi eld. Permanent
and precise adjusting to the varying, site-specifi c soil and crop conditions in the
fi eld can address the environmental needs much better and ensure high yields. This
is the rationale for site-specifi c precision farming.
This rationale needs means to get to its objectives. Human visual observation and
subsequent manual adjustment on-the-go hardly is possible when operating with
high speeds and wide machinery. Sensors which record and computers that process
the signals about the respective site-specifi c situations of the soils or crops within
a fi eld can and will overcome the challenges. When used in combination with
actuators - which adjust the machinery correspondingly - they allow for automated
