Critical Review of Precision Agriculture Technologies and Its Scope of Adoption in India
Pinaki Mondal
International Centre for Automotive Technology, Manesar, Haryana, India
M. Basu *
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, P. O. Box 721302, India
P. B. S. Bhadoria
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, P. O. Box 721302, India
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Precision agriculture (PA) concept was initiated for site specific crop management as a combination of positioning system technology, variable rate technology, remote sensing, yield mapping etc. to optimize the profitability, sustainability with a reduced environmental impact. From centuries Indian farms are experiencing some sort of soft precision agriculture technology. But the challenges of free and globalized market as well as ever-increasing population with huge food grain demand create the scope of adoption of hard precision agriculture technology in Indian farms. So learning the new agricultural technology invented in developed countries and its proper modification and application according to the domestic condition is necessary. Therefore, nearly hundred research papers generated in last three decades have been critically reviewed to find the status of main six components of PA, i.e., Positioning System, Remote Sensing, Variable Rate Technology, Crop & Soil Sensing & Analysis, Yield Mapping and Information Transmission Protocol. Additionally strategies for adoption of PA in Indian agriculture are discussed.
Keywords: Precision agriculture, GPS, remote sensing, yield mapping, VRT, Indian agriculture