The long haul toward food security begins at the source, and precision farming is capitalizing on the latest technologies to feed the world while ensuring we still have a habitable Earth.

Agriculture has a long list of impacts on the planet from water use to pesticides. And the more we farm, the more impact we make. Fortunately, a revolution in farming technologies is helping farmers maintain yields and honor the land that provides them.

“Good farmers, who take seriously their duties as stewards of creation and of their land’s inheritors, contribute to the welfare of society in more ways than society usually acknowledges, or even knows.

These farmers produce valuable goods, of course; but they also conserve soil, they conserve water, they conserve wildlife, they conserve open space, they conserve scenery,” wrote Wendell Berry, American writer and environmental activist, in his book “Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food.”

Randy Price, precision farming specialist at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, says precision farming has ample benefits for farmers, consumers and the environment and presents solutions of how farmers can live up to this standard.

Pesticides protect the crop and the global population’s food supply, but they have a significant impact on the environment.

According to a 2023 study out of Chang Mai University in Thailand, “The transport of pesticides from crop-growing regions has resulted in widespread contamination, not only of soils, water bodies, and/or crops but also of the atmosphere via various pathways.” Precision farming technology, however, might be a part of the solution.

Send in the drones

Drone technology can help, Louisiana State’s Price says. “Drones are allowing farmers and consultants to obtain overhead images of farm fields and land areas at greatly reduced prices over satellite and other methods.”

Drones can be fitted with sensors and imaging technology, and this data plays an integral role in active farming. Among other uses, the data can help farmers identify fungal contaminations, pest infestations or areas of growth congestion.

Identifying these issues early and targeting specific locations eliminates the need to spray entire crops with pesticides — which means less toxicants in the air, soil and food supply: better for the land, better for the consumer, less costly for the farmer and safer for farm workers.

Once the problem is identified, a drone is programmed to spray the affected area with the appropriate pesticide avoiding overuse. Price says the more common precision tools are yield monitors.

This technology allows farmers to determine their crop yield within a specific unit area of their land and perform on-farm analysis, allowing for informed planning and decision-making. Understanding which areas are underperforming or overperforming is crucial to this process. Monitors and analysis assist irrigation allotment, fertilizer volumes and crop rotation.

Research also includes testing. “They will try different application rates (fertilizer, irrigation, additives, etc.) on small areas of a field, such as twelve rows plot down the whole field, etc., and then use the yield monitor at the end of the year to quickly (and easily) see the differences in that plot,” Price says.

Mapping the land

All of this information helps farmers create a prescription map of their land — something Price says is challenging and labor intensive. He says he believes for areas over 3,000 acres, mapping needs to be easier. The knowledge bases are inadequate at this stage and still required are “systems that will convert remote sensing data into actual disease and pest damage assessments.”

He and his team are working to make this happen with automatic flying drones.

“They take off, fly a field, land and recharge automatically,” he says, adding that low-level flights that record data at 10 meters from the crop surface allow high-resolution images of plant leaves to be recorded (with location) for automatic analysis with AI and other techniques.

Price’s team has been collaborating with several companies to create automated flight platforms for remote-sensing drones and additional yield monitors for sugarcane.

Price says AI will be the major contributor going forward to analyze crop damage and assess pests and disease. This would allow for fully automated treatment by sprayer drones. The drones then would collect the next remote-sensing data for analysis. Assess, treat and repeat.

In addition to crop health, AI offers data-driven decision-making opportunities for soil conditions and weather patterns.

“Over time, precision farming should allow farmers to more precisely treat various areas of land, without over-treating other areas and create a more sustainable agriculture,” Price tells KUST Review.