Title: Introduction to Precision Agriculture
Course: MASTER-AGRI-1370-WB-Malone

Precision Agriculture is becoming very important to agricultural businesses. The modern practice of precision agriculture was enabled by the advent of the Global Positioning Systems or GPS; a worldwide radio-navigation system formed from a constellation of 24 satellites and their ground systems. Essentially GPS gives every square meter on the planet a unique address.

A Geographic Information System or GIS is a computer system that uses GPS data to map, model, query, and analyze large quantities of data within a single database according to their location.

These systems allow farmer's and/or researcher's to locate their precise position in a field and to obtain data from the field; allowing for the creation of maps that show many variables (e.g. crop yield, terrain features/topography, organic matter content, moisture levels, nitrogen levels, pH, EC, Mg, K, etc.).

In this section students will become familiar with the definition of Precision Agriculture; the basic functions GPS and GIS; and list the ways GPS can be used in relation to agriculture.

Assignments