Precision Agriculture in Small Scale Farm System

Yumiko Kanke

Precision Agriculture?Treating small units is not new.

Historically it was there before.

But due to the luck of information to manage individual units, precision agriculture was not advanced

The State of Japanese Agriculture Average farm scale is 3.7 acre Precision farming approach is only for large scale

farmersWhy?

Involves intensive technologies with high investment, Its estimated that the scale merits can realized on the

large scale farms

The State of Japanese Agriculture Average age of farmers is over 65 years old They love what they do and what their ancestors did;• Hard to adopt new technologies

The State of Japanese Agriculture Land Ownership• Due to the political policy in the past, land-ownership is

complicated. • Government assigned fields to people and take rice as tax.• Neighboring fields are owned by different people.

The State of Japanese Agriculture Doubt for Economic Return

Wheat (Cost $2400/ac, Profit $1200/ac)

Land rent26%

Fertilizer14%

Pesticide9%

Machine14%

Other19%

Labor18%

Rice(Cost $5600/ac, Profit $2400/ac)

Land rent11%

Fertilizer7%

Pesticide6%

Machine19%

Other22%

Labor, 35.4, %

•Rice production requires intensive labor cost compared to wheat production.

•Farmers prefer to manage labor fee to increase profits rather than improve fertilizer and pesticide management

What are the variables needed to be considered?What are the variables needed to be considered? Within-Field- Environmental factors Between-Field-Environmental factors and different

plant species (ex. Rice, soybeans and vegetable) Between Farmers Temporal

Variable Factors in Small Scale Farm System

Hierarchical Variability

Big FarmSmall Farm

One Farmer Several Farmers Variability in Farmers

Within-Field Variability Within-Field Variability

Between-Field Variability

Uniform Farm LandLand Use Diversity

Approach to Precision Ag Focus on Between-Fields Variability Focus on Reducing Labor Work Focus on Efficient Data Collection

• Real-Time Soil Monitoring System• Remote Control Helicopter Sensor• On Site Weather Station• Introducing Robots• Information Management (GIS)

1. Real-Time Soil Sensing

Leads to measurement of

•Soil Moisture

•Organic Mater

•Nitrogen (NO3-)

•EC

•pH

“ Soil Sampling is time consuming and requires intensive labor ”

2. Remote Control Sensing System

•Good for fields at random locations (beneficial for treating between-field variability)

•Good for terrace system

•Good for farms who grow different species in one season

RiceVegetable

Soybean

“If you manage 20 different rice fields, 10 different soybean fields and 15 different vegetable fields in one season, is it economical to use variable applicator?”

3. On Site Weather Station

Insolation Monitoring

Digital Camera

Sensor forTemperature

MoistureSoil Moisture

“It monitors environmental and plant growth condition”

•Harvest date (Save time and money for drier)•Disease control • Provide real time information to consumers

4. Information Management(GeoMation Farm by Hitachi)

“One Farm has 200 different fields with different plants in one season”By using all of the information, (soil monitoring, field weather station, field monitoring)software provide information for planting , fertilizer and herbicide application date, application rate, as well as harvesting date.

Management Monitor

Check the management information

Today

Tomorrow

•Save time•Manage more area in one days------Reduction of labor time and costDaily Instruction

5. Introducing Robots

“To improve precision, it is better to ask robots .”

•Reducing labor

•Cost?

Precision Agriculture has been launched in academic fields

Due to the small scale fields, it is beneficial to focus on between-field variability rather than within-field variability

Mechanical improvements has received more attention to improve precision Ag as well as reducing labor work.

Summary of Precision Ag in Japan

Reference http://www.afftis.or.jp/nouki/ki3d01.htm http://brain.naro.affrc.go.jp/PF/ http://www.maff.go.jp/ Precision Farming Japan Model by Sakae Shibusawa