what are the merits of precision farming
Answers
Answer:
Save time and costs: reduce fertilizer and chemical application costs, reduce pollution through less use of chemicals. Provide better farm records essential for sale and succession. Can be integrated with farm management softwares, like Agrivi, to make all activities on farm more easy and to improve farm productivity.
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Explanation:
Answer and Explanation:
The Benefits of Modern Precision Farming
Farming practices are ever changing, and the processes farmers are using on a daily basis are becoming more diverse and dynamic. This has seen a vast improvement in a number of areas for farmers and we take an in depth look on the many ways that precision agriculture is having a tremendous effect on farms everywhere.
Simplified Farming Processes
Precision farmers are finding that the ordinary day to day farm processes are becoming easier to manage and this is as a direct result of technology implementation and streamlining procedures. Whilst many farm jobs take a lot of effort to complete, by adopting modern technologies, farmers are finding it easier to get these completed. Two key examples of this are drones calculating final crop numbers and unmanned bots taking care of weeding. Both would have ordinarily been arduous for farmers to conduct the job by themselves and are now taken care of with minimal effort and a great degree of accuracy.
More Cost-Efficient Farming
A farmer’s expense sheet is often the thing of doom and dread. Precision farming aims to reduce a farmer’s expenditure by minimising the need for things like fertiliser, pesticide and herbicide. Over a growing season, grower’s are seeing significant reductions in the amount of money they are spending on all of the above where technology is using the components sparingly and only where needed. As an alternative to blanket spraying this has seen massive savings and allows farmers to better budget and keep costs to a minimum.
More Time on Their Hands
Accompanying the simplified processes, farmers are finding they are freeing up a lot more time to concentrate on the business operations of their farms rather than the nitty gritty jobs that would ordinarily be very time consuming. This means that they can focus their energy on making the farm more profitable and expansion planning rather than get bogged down completing menial tasks that technology can do instead.
Higher Yields and More Profitability
Statistically, a precision farmer will make more money than a traditional farmer. This is for a number of reasons. Their yields are higher because they have improved growing practices and they are able to sell more produce at the end of the season as a result. They also have less man hours to expend as technology is filling gaps that workers would have previously filled. There is now a huge fruit picking technology industry which is minimising labourer costs across many large fruit farms. As well as these benefits, because farmers are reducing costs by employing technology they are hitting their profit margins a lot sooner than traditional farmers.
Better Quality Produce
Implementing better growing processes is providing produce that is of a higher quality. This is done in many ways such as actively monitoring the nutrients in soil, strip tilling and irrigating plants correctly and when irrigation is needed. Again; this not only boosts yields, but it also boosts profit margins further as when it comes to taking the crop to market, precision farmers are able to negotiate a higher price for the improved quality in the produce.
Less Waste
Lost crop is a nightmare for farmers, and over a growing season there is expectation that a certain number of plants will not see the season through. Making this worse is that historically storage practices inevitably resulted in further spoilage. With streamlined growing processes and healthier plants that crops have a much better chance of surviving and growing seasons are becoming more sustainable. Furthermore, improvements in storage by technological means has greatly reduced crop spoilage in the storage stage as well.
Less Debt
Unfortunately, a word that has become synonymous with farming is debt. Precision farmers are no more able to avoid debt as a traditional farmer however they are able to clear it quicker because they have more money to pay it down. This is as a result of the increased profitability and many precision farmers are now debt free or taking big steps towards becoming debt free.
Higher Quality of Life
Farming is a difficult and exhausting job. Farmer suicide rates are high and overall quality of life was typically non-existent. Precision farming is changing this rapidly, and as a result of the things we have mentioned on the list they are experiencing a better quality of life with a reduction in stress levels. With more time to spend with the family, more money to go on holidays with and less physical labour involved in the farming process, precision farmers are living healthier and more fulfilled lifestyles that should see those alarming suicide statistics fall as time goes by.
The growth seen across the globe in both yield and distribution of farmed goods has been staggering and this will continue to grow as more farmers realize that they can have simpler and more productive lives.