Dr Wimpie Nell
Director: Centre for Agricultural Management
Department of Agricultural Economics
Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
University of the Free State
Tel. no. 051 401 2557/3759
Fax 051 401 3473
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The management of different potential areas on a farm, or the feeding of animals according to their reproduction levels, has been a standard practice of many farmers over the past twenty years. This practice is also referred to as site-specific management. Space technologies contributed to the further development of site-specific management to what is generally referred to a precision agriculture or precision farming.
New technological developments such as precision agriculture have revolutionised the traditional approach of farming. Precision agriculture provides highly sophisticated information to assist farmers/managers in their normal, everyday planning and strategic decisions, which can expand the farmer's management capacity and management time. Used efficiently and correctly, precision agricultural techniques and site-specific management can optimise input applications, cut input costs, increase production, reduce production risks and ensure greater profitability in the long run. Harris (1997) stated that precision agriculture intends to influence the cost of production by optimising inputs. As an effective technology in the optimal use of resources, it can be the long-term solution and the ultimate choice in improving agricultural productivity in Africa.
Precision agriculture in this instance refers to the management of variability by means of Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS), and site-specific management refers to the management of variability without using GPS-based systems.
Many tupes of phases of sustainable technologies are needed to steer agricultural along a sustainable path. The development of new technologies such as precision agriculture and site-specific management can contribute to the successful management of agricultural in a changing environment. Precision agriculture is a complementary process of different kinds of management practices, including environmental management.
Farmers in South Africa are currently moving towards the use of precision agriculture techniques to combat the ongoing price:cost squeeze in South Africa and to lower production risk. They further regard it as an opportunity to increase the profitability of their farming businesses, to increase yields, to improve quality, to lower manpower costs and to conserve the natural resources for their descendants. The prediction is that more farmers will adopt precision agriculture techniques when more scientific research results on the profitability of precision agriculture become available.
Interest in precision agriculture technologies has increased tremendously over the past years. There are further also a number of companies venturing into precision agriculture, each with its own way of approaching this technology. Each one of these companies believes that their approach is the best. Farmers interested in this technology must make sure that they follow the approach which will suit their farming business the best and is the most economical way of starting with the technology. The end result of all the techniques are to identify management zones and manage their farming business accordingly.
Scientific research in South Africa is nearly non-existent.
 An M.Tech. thesis on precision agriculture was done by B. Muller of Senwes/An M.Agric. by N. Matela from the University of the Free State on The status of precision agriculture in South Africa. She is currently busy with her Ph.D. on the Economics of precision agriculture of maize in the Bothaville district. Mr V. Zeilinga received his M.Agric. in 2005 on the topic Evaluation of different methods to identify management zones in the central crop production region. Mr J. Dennis is busy with a M.Agric. on the topic Precision irrigation. |