precision agriculture in small scale farm system
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Precision Agriculture in Small Scale Farm System
Yumiko Kanke
Precision Agriculture?Treating small units is not new.
Historically it was there before.
But due to the luck of information to manage individual units, precision agriculture was not advanced
The State of Japanese Agriculture Average farm scale is 3.7 acre Precision farming approach is only for large scale
farmersWhy?
Involves intensive technologies with high investment, Its estimated that the scale merits can realized on the
large scale farms
The State of Japanese Agriculture Average age of farmers is over 65 years old They love what they do and what their ancestors did;• Hard to adopt new technologies
The State of Japanese Agriculture Land Ownership• Due to the political policy in the past, land-ownership is
complicated. • Government assigned fields to people and take rice as tax.• Neighboring fields are owned by different people.
The State of Japanese Agriculture Doubt for Economic Return
Wheat (Cost $2400/ac, Profit $1200/ac)
Land rent26%
Fertilizer14%
Pesticide9%
Machine14%
Other19%
Labor18%
Rice(Cost $5600/ac, Profit $2400/ac)
Land rent11%
Fertilizer7%
Pesticide6%
Machine19%
Other22%
Labor, 35.4, %
•Rice production requires intensive labor cost compared to wheat production.
•Farmers prefer to manage labor fee to increase profits rather than improve fertilizer and pesticide management
What are the variables needed to be considered?What are the variables needed to be considered? Within-Field- Environmental factors Between-Field-Environmental factors and different
plant species (ex. Rice, soybeans and vegetable) Between Farmers Temporal
Variable Factors in Small Scale Farm System
Hierarchical Variability
Big FarmSmall Farm
One Farmer Several Farmers Variability in Farmers
Within-Field Variability Within-Field Variability
Between-Field Variability
Uniform Farm LandLand Use Diversity
Approach to Precision Ag Focus on Between-Fields Variability Focus on Reducing Labor Work Focus on Efficient Data Collection
• Real-Time Soil Monitoring System• Remote Control Helicopter Sensor• On Site Weather Station• Introducing Robots• Information Management (GIS)
1. Real-Time Soil Sensing
Leads to measurement of
•Soil Moisture
•Organic Mater
•Nitrogen (NO3-)
•EC
•pH
“ Soil Sampling is time consuming and requires intensive labor ”
2. Remote Control Sensing System
•Good for fields at random locations (beneficial for treating between-field variability)
•Good for terrace system
•Good for farms who grow different species in one season
RiceVegetable
Soybean
“If you manage 20 different rice fields, 10 different soybean fields and 15 different vegetable fields in one season, is it economical to use variable applicator?”
3. On Site Weather Station
Insolation Monitoring
Digital Camera
Sensor forTemperature
MoistureSoil Moisture
“It monitors environmental and plant growth condition”
•Harvest date (Save time and money for drier)•Disease control • Provide real time information to consumers
4. Information Management(GeoMation Farm by Hitachi)
“One Farm has 200 different fields with different plants in one season”By using all of the information, (soil monitoring, field weather station, field monitoring)software provide information for planting , fertilizer and herbicide application date, application rate, as well as harvesting date.
Management Monitor
Check the management information
Today
Tomorrow
•Save time•Manage more area in one days------Reduction of labor time and costDaily Instruction
5. Introducing Robots
“To improve precision, it is better to ask robots .”
•Reducing labor
•Cost?
Precision Agriculture has been launched in academic fields
Due to the small scale fields, it is beneficial to focus on between-field variability rather than within-field variability
Mechanical improvements has received more attention to improve precision Ag as well as reducing labor work.
Summary of Precision Ag in Japan
Reference http://www.afftis.or.jp/nouki/ki3d01.htm http://brain.naro.affrc.go.jp/PF/ http://www.maff.go.jp/ Precision Farming Japan Model by Sakae Shibusawa
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