Search

Precision Agriculture: Evolution, Insights and Emerging Trends presents a complete guide from foundational concepts to the economic, commercial and environmental implications of the approach. Showcasing recent research improvements, future trends, and highlighting innovative use of machine vision, artificial intelligence, UAVs, drones, IoT and data analytics to promote sustainable agriculture, the book brings the reader up-to-date with understanding and implementing this targeted practice. From the basic elements of agronomy to insights on reflectance and remote sensing indices, chapters use summary abstracts, case studies and real-world examples of implementing the tools of precision agriculture (PA) to demonstrate the latest advances. It includes explanations on the origin of the intra-plot variability of a culture (spatial and temporal), different types of existing sensors, controllers and site-specific management. The book further explores yield monitoring, weed, disease and pest control, automated irrigation systems, PA tools for variable rate application of inputs within the field, and data processing methods. By also exploring the economic profitability of precision farming approaches, and its utility for sustainable agriculture, Precision Agriculture: Evolution, Insights and Emerging Trends is a truly comprehensive view of this important approach to improving global agriculture production. Scientists, researchers, policymakers, graduate and postgraduate students, and engineers in the related fields of agriculture, computer science and engineering will benefit from this book. - Addresses soil, machinery, plants, irrigation, sensors, UAVs and more - Explores current and future technologies in the field of Precision Agriculture - Details comprehensive cost-benefit analysis for governments and other policymakers to incentivize and promote precision agriculture technology

In the middle of the twentieth century, new insecticides were being con­ stantly developed and it seemed that pesticides would be able to control insect pests indefinitely. In fact, from the 1950s to the 1980s, pest control was mostly based on conventional insecticides such as organochlorines, organo­ phosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids. However, the severe adverse effects of pesticides on the environment, the resistance problems reaching crisis pro­ portions and public protests led to stricter regulations and legislation aimed at reducing the use of pesticides. Consequently, other ways to manage insects have been suggested, such as the use of biorational pesticides with minimal adverse effects on the environment, biological control, host-plant resistance to pests, mating disruption with pheromones, and cultural and physical con­ trol. The ideas behind'integrated control'were published at the end of the 1950s by groups of entomologists from California, and served as a basis for initiating integrated pest management (IPM) in the 1970s. Since the 1980s, insecticide resistant management (IRM) programs have been introduced as a result of increasing problems of resistance to pesticides. IPM programs were strengthened as the awareness of environmental fragility intensified. Since the late 1990s, advanced approaches to manage insect pests have been devel­ oped. One of the novel and exciting innovations in the study of plant resis­ tance to pests has been the introduction of genetically engineered or trans­ genic plants.

Land degradation in drylands is a multi-faceted problem. Consequently, current management approaches that attempt to mitigate such land degradation often fail to produce significant improvements. The processes associated with land degradation in drylands fall at the interface of ecology and geomorphology. For a better understanding of this degradation, there is a need to uncover the underlying dynamics and characteristic responses to environmental drivers and human-induced disturbances. A primary characteristic of this land degradation is a change in processes and the emergence of patterns; but there remain many unknowns as to how these changing processes and emerging patterns are connected. In the first section of this keystone manual, the theory of ecogeomorphic pattern-process linkages is explored, establishing an integrated view of current concepts of pattern emergence and self-organization from an ecogeomorphic perspective. The second section of the book explores methods for confronting models with data for the study of pattern-process linkages, bringing together divergent empirical and modelling methodologies to provide a fully integrated understanding of land degradation in drylands. Four case studies from drylands in Europe, Africa, Australia and North America outline the advances in ecogeomorphic research that have been made in these systems. Learning from this diverse range of studies and approaches, a research agenda for the emerging field of ecogeomorphology in land-degradation studies in drylands is set forth.

Oilseed rape is a major arable crop in both Europe and North America. It is attacked by unique complexes of insect pests still largely controlled through the application of chemical insecticides. Crop management systems for the future must combine sustainability with environmental acceptability to satisfy both social and economic demands. This book, in its 17 chapters each led by a world expert, reviews research progress towards developing integrated pest management systems for the crop that enhance conservation biocontrol. This approach is particularly timely because of the development in Europe of insecticide resistance in the pollen beetle, a major pest of the crop. The past decade has seen considerable progress in our knowledge of the parasitoids and predators that contribute to biocontrol, of their distribution patterns, and their behavioural ecology, both within and without the crop. There is potential for natural enemy conservation through modification of within-field crop husbandry practices, as well as, on the landscape scale, through habitat manipulation to encourage vegetational diversity. This book will prove invaluable as a text for researchers, university teachers, graduate scientists, extension workers and growers involved in integrated pest management.

The world's population is expected to reach 8 billion by 2025 and most of this growth in population will occur in developing countries. To feed the world with such a marked increase in population, a great improvement in food production must be achieved particularly in these countries. To meet this challenge, present agricultural productivity must be increased on the cultivated land. However, in many developing countries, particularly in Africa, reduced soil fertility caused by continuous cropping with low nutrient input and the resultant nutrient mining of soils is a major threat both to food production and to ecosystem viability. As a result of declining soil fertility, together with increasing population pressure, expansion of crop production to marginal lands and forested areas contribute to the destruction of natural ecosystems. Food production is not only a quantitative challenge. Improving the nutrient status of plants provides a further valuable means of enhancing food quality and is of extreme benefit to the health of both plants and humans. There are several excellent examples showing that plants with optimum nutrient status are better adapted to biotic and abiotic stress factors. Because of population pressures, many global food systems are not currently providing enough micronutrients to ensure adequate micronutrient intakes in the human diet. This has resulted in an increasing prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies that now afflicts over three billion people worldwide.