The economics of precision agriculture

Publication date: 05/11/2018
Extent: 22 pages

Contributions by: James Lowenberg-DeBoer, Harper Adams University, UK

Chapter synopsis: This chapter reviews data on the use of precision agriculture (PA) in agronomic crops production, examines whether economic research has correctly predicted PA technologies adopted by farmers and identifies several PA technologies that recent economic research has identified as having profit and adoption potential. Data shows mechanized farmers adopted global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) guidance technologies rapidly. Those same data show that use of variable rate technology (VRT) grew more slowly. The review of the economics research shows that by the late 1990s economists understood that GNSS guidance and related technologies were likely to be widely adopted in the longer run and they were raising questions about the profitability of VRT. Studies over the last decade show that the most economically promising PA technologies include sensor-driven VRT N, agricultural robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, and PA for medium and small farms.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2017.0032.19