Toward a Precision Agricultural Implementation for Sugar Cane Plantations in Southwestern Region of Colombia, South America
1J. A. Celades, 1J. H. Caicedo, 1C. E. García, 2H. Mora
1. Colombian Sugar Cane Research Center (Cenicaña), Cali, Colombia
2. Colombian Geological Survey, Bogotá, Colombia
The Colombian Sugar Cane Research Center, CENICAÑA, has initiated an ambitious project for the implementation of Precision Agriculture (PA) technologies in the Cauca river valley region, where one of its main objectives is to have the ability to collect large volumes of geospatial data. The main sugarcane growers in the country perform their work in the selected work area, which covers an area of approximately 242,000 ha, characterized by diverse topographic and edaphic conditions. In the search to apply and integrate geospatial and information technologies in the best way, the experiences of other countries have taken into account to improve and optimize the efficiency of production and the quality of crops. The first stage of the project is the installation of seventeen (17) stations: seven (7) GNSS base stations (Global Navigation Satellite System) and ten (10) radio repeaters, which make up a RTK (Real Time Kinematic) network that provides accurate spatial references for navigation and automatic guidance of agricultural machinery equipped with RTK technologies. Education and training in PA is a great challenge, this important issue considered and led by CENICAÑA for its implementation, which includes the barriers that exist in its adoption, learning processes and methodologies as well as the needs that arise from the use of PA technologies. In order to obtain reliable results of the position of the reference stations, GNSS network performed under a framework of collaboration with the Spatial Geodetic Research Group of the Colombian Geological Survey, which operates a national network of GNSS stations. In order to research the geodynamics of Colombian territory (GeoRED Project), following the standards that guarantee high precision positioning and supports the use of multipurpose GNSS signals. This approach is essential to establish additional research programs for geodynamic applications in scientific fields such as GNSS meteorology, among others. In this way, CENICAÑA supports the expansion of the national GNSS network to increase spatial coverage, in order to improve knowledge of the deformation of the earth's crust and its association with the possible occurrence of earthquakes in the northwest corner of South America.