Overview Of Ongoing Developments And Challenges In Precision Agriculture

Looking into the future Precision Agriculture will continue to evolve, fuelled by the rapid development of technology. Currently there are a multitude of areas of research focusing on precision farming practices and management strategies. Continued improvement to GNSS positioning capabilities will no-doubt result in the creation of new technology and equipment which will further contribute to agricultural efficiency, productivity and profitability. Inter-row sowing is a technique that exploits high-accuracy GNSS. For such a technique to be implemented, suitable reference station geometry must exist. As previously mentioned, positioning accuracy of ~20mm is typically only possible if the user is positioned within 10-15km of a correction-broadcasting reference station or within 70km if a network of such station’s ‘surround’ the receiver. This developing technique aims to capitalise upon sowing seed in the supposed superior growing conditions experienced between ploughed rows of a paddock, as opposed to sowing in the same place as the previous year. The legitimacy of such a claim remains in question and research continues. However, it is thought that such a method minimises exposure to disease such as crown rot-a fungus that attacks winter cereal crops.

With developing techniques such as inter-row sowing, challenges of number of forms arise. Perhaps not a new issue, but with relevance to GNSS, is the presence of obstructing features (such as trees) resulting in the temporary decline in positioning accuracy due to the multi-path effects. Given that machinery is increasingly becoming controlled by GNSS, a momentary loss in positional certainty has the potential to result in disaster with an array of financial, environmental and safety consequences. The advent of multi-GNSS will presumably contribute to minimising the likelihood of such catastrophic events. Given that the GPS satellite constellation is the most prevalent navigational system used in the western world and the number of satellites is finite, issues arise with positional derivation when the location of these satellites doesn’t allow an adequate location solution. To address this, select GNSS receivers’ position can be determined using a number of satellite constellations such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo-hence the term ‘multi-GNSS. ’ Unless an area is heavily covered in vegetation, multi-GNSS will allow the machinery/technology to operate uninterrupted without the need for human intervention.

In conclusion, GNSS undoubtedly acts as a fundamental pillar for the continually expanding farming management concept that is Precision Agriculture. With future improvements to the accessibility and accuracy of global positioning services, new technologies will continue to develop and have a compelling impact upon efficiency and profitability of agriculture on both a regional and global scale. This paper describes the relationship between GNSS and two PA techniques, yield mapping and monitoring and variable rate application whilst also outlining how they function to benefit the user. The global market for PA is expected to reach approximately AUD$5. 5 billion by the conclusion of 2018 which further highlights its relevance as an agricultural management technique.