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Conditioning Factors For Decision-Making Regarding Precision Agriculture Techniques Usage

¹H. L. Burnquist, ²C. C. Costa

1. ESALQ/USP
2. Embrapa

The eventual goal of using the techniques of precision agriculture (described as inputs applied at varied rates) is to get one of the following results: (a) lowering cost by reducing inputs, (b) decreasing the pollution of water, soil and the atmosphere and (c) increasing agricultural productivity by the more efficient use of inputs. However, studies on these techniques do not reach similar conclusions. This could be expected, since the effectiveness of these techniques would depend on the environment in which they were employed. Thus, this study was carried out in order to list and analyze the main factors defining whether or not an area will enable success in the use of precision agriculture. The criteria for success only took the results regarding the reduction in the use of inputs and increased productivity into account. There were two reasons for this: first, it is just these effects that generate increased income for farmers, and second, environmental gains will always follow.

The method used for this analysis was to estimate the revenue and the cost of production arising from the use of an agricultural production function, considering the various conditions that we find in the field if fertilizers are applied at fixed (no precision agriculture) and varied rates. The conditions analyzed were: number of sub-areas with different degrees of fertility for farming, degree of variation in the fertility of the whole area, the size of each area and which sub-areas were sampled for uniform application of inputs. From these conditions, we analyzed the various scenarios that could be observed in the field, comparing uniform and varied application. The results were analyzed to reveal the changes in the amount of inputs used, the agricultural productivity and the profitability for the producer.

The results showed that the factor that most influenced the gain in producer profitability, when adopting the use of precision agriculture tools (fertilizer applied at varied rates) instead of the uniform application of fertilizer was the shape of the area sampled for uniform application. Corroborating other studies, the results also indicated that the use of precision agriculture, with varied application of fertilizers, is economically more advantageous if applied over large areas. However, in contrast to other studies, we cannot say that varied application of fertilizer definitely reduces input or increases crop productivity. One or both of these gains could occur, depending on the condition of the area and samples taken for uniform application of fertilizer. Therefore, it is concluded that there is no point in conducting scientific studies that analyze the general economic impact of applying the techniques of precision agriculture, since this impact must be analyzed individually for each area.

Keyword: wide application; inputs; productivity

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