Kyle Peveto

In the past three decades, modern innovations like GPS have changed the way we travel, and interconnected sensors have improved home security and efficiency. Now, self-driving cars are appearing on city streets, and drones are delivering packages to homes.

Through a movement called digital agriculture, similar innovations are transforming farming with technologies that allow producers to automate tasks and digitize data to make better decisions. LSU AgCenter researchers are working to better understand these emerging technologies while also developing the next generation of tools to help producers.

Employing modern digital information tools such as internet-connected sensors, satellite imagery, yield monitors, and unmanned aerial and ground equipment to collect and share data and make farming more efficient is an important part of the digital agriculture field.

Within digital agriculture lies precision agriculture, a field that focuses on better management of crops and animals and has potential to save money and conserve resources. Through precision agriculture, producers aim to observe crops, discover the appropriate amount of an input — fertilizer or pesticides, for example — and apply only the amount needed.

“We need to know the specific needs of each plant and then we need to make the precise application or the minimum needed for that plant,” said Congliang Zhou, the AgCenter precision agriculture Extension specialist. “Right time, right location, using the right method. That’s the key concept of precision agriculture.”

Digital and precision agriculture technologies began developing as early as the 1970s, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service summary of this facet of agriculture. Early precision agriculture tools included tractor guidance systems, advanced soil sampling and yield monitors that measured crop attributes. Many of these once-cutting-edge technologies are conventional now. Additional tools like variable rate technologies, which allow producers to use tractor implements to apply different specific amounts of nutrients, seeds or other inputs to different areas, have become common since their introduction in the 1990s.

Zhou expects Louisiana growers to adopt drones to both scout fields and spray needed applications as these technologies become more advanced. Applying variable rate technologies to sprayer drones is expected in coming years. Developing artificial intelligence models to help identify weeds, diseases and insect pests could also help producers use fewer chemicals and become more efficient.

In this issue of Louisiana Agriculture, LSU AgCenter researchers and Extension personnel detail the rapidly progressing fields of digital and precision agriculture and explain how they are educating Louisianans on the benefits of these tools.

The AgCenter precision agriculture team is working on numerous projects and identifying ways to collaborate and connect digital agriculture tools.

“There is a lot of work to be done,” Zhou said. “How can we combine these technologies? That will be the key to making it successful.”

Kyle Peveto is the editor of Louisiana Agriculture.

A sprayer drone flies over sugarcane near Alexandria as part of a test by LSU AgCenter engineer and precision agriculture specialist Randy R. Price. Photo by Kyle Peveto