New Tools and Methods in Agronomy

Abstract

As developments in information and communication technologies increase, new opportunities are becoming available to refine agronomic management. Precision agriculture, or site-specific crop management, is a farm management concept based on observing and responding to intra field variability. This concept is being increasingly applied to irrigation and fertilizer management with the aid of remote sensors of vegetation in the visible and thermal bands and automatic guidance systems based on precision GPS. Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object without making physical contact by using satellites, aircraft, and/or land platforms. Other tools include crop simulation models which are computer programs with equations that represent the response of the crop to management practices (e.g. planting density) and the environment (meteorology, soil). They may be combined with remote sensing data for large scale analyses and predictions and for refining site-specific management.