Crops and soils are not uniform but vary according to spatial location. Large-scale nonuniformities have long been countered with different cropping practices in different regions. But precision farming responds to spatial variability within individual fields or orchards. This Ieads to a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly agriculture by • Increasing food production • Optimizing the use of restricted resources of water and land • Reducing environmental pollution • Engaging the efficiency capabilities of intelligent farm machinery • Improving the performance of farm management Precision farming concepts include: • More accurate farm work by better adjustments of settings and by improved monitaring and control mechanisms • Localized fertilizing on demandin accordance with the variability of soils, nutrients, available water, and plant growth • Weed and pest control by localized crop production needs • Automated information acquisition and information management with wellstructured databases, geographic information systems (GIS), highly sophisticated decision-support models, and expert-knowledge systems in integrated systems connected by standardized communication links. Precision farming is not a fixed system, but rather a set of general concepts that may have different physical realizations with • Different soil types under different climate conditions • Different farm management systems and production Ievels • Different mechanization solutions      «

Crops and soils are not uniform but vary according to spatial location. Large-scale nonuniformities have long been countered with different cropping practices in different regions. But precision farming responds to spatial variability within individual fields or orchards. This Ieads to a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly agriculture by • Increasing food production • Optimizing the use of restricted resources of water and land • Reducing environmental pollution • Engaging the e...     »