Aagw2010 June 10 James Kimani Wanjohi Precision Agriculture in Africa

8/9/2019 Aagw2010 June 10 James Kimani Wanjohi Precision Agriculture in Africa

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Precision Agriculture using GIS

and GPS in Africa

By

James Kimani Wanjohi



What is precision agriculture•

Precision Agriculture is a technology that hasbeen described as the ‘next great revolution in

agriculture’.

• An integrated information and production-based

farming system that is designed to increase long-term, site-specific and whole farm production.Leading to efficiency, productivity andprofitability, while minimizing unintended impact

on wildlife and the environment

Ability to manage land by the square metre instead of the

square mile



What is precision agriculture CONT

Precision agriculture is an agricultural concept

relying on the existence of in-field variability

that requires the use of technologies, such as

GIS geographic information systems, Global

Positioning System (GPS), sensors, satellites or

aerial images, and geographical information

management tools to assess and understandvariations



Uses of precision Agriculture

• Helps in adapting to variability (Spatial – changes

across farm, temporal – season to season andpredictive – difference between predicted and actual

results)

• It can be used to accurately predict crop yields

• Avoids blanket practices across the field. Actiondepending on soil/climate conditions at differentareas of a farm

• Optimize use and vary the rate of inputs, such asfertilizer, across a field based on the needidentified by GPS guided grid sampling.



Components of Precision Agriculture

• Soil Sampling

•

Yield Monitoring

• Variable Rate Application (VRA)



Components of precision agriculture

• Yield monitoring

Yield monitoring and mappingcapabilities allow combinesequipped with an AgGPS® FmX™

integrated display to accuratelymonitor and map harvested cropyield and moisture.

Farmers can use the recordedyield data to analyze performanceand create variable rateprescription maps using ArcGIS



Components of precision agriculture

• Variable rate application-(Nutrient or chemical needed)

• Create a prescription map using FarmWorks Site (A division of Trimble)or

ArcGIS or get a prescription file froma crop consultant.

• Load the field prescription map intothe EZ-Guide 500 system or FmXintegrated display. It reads data andsends rate information to theapplication controller.

• Work the field and enjoy the benefitsof saving on inputs and increased

efficiency!



Benefits• Making the agricultural practices economically

and environmentally justifiable

• Technologically feasible

• Increase the stewardship of land, water, andrelated natural resources

precision Agriculture is aimed at reducing production cost and increase the potential for greater yields.



Challenges of precision Agriculture in Africa“Precision agriculture is virtually unknown inAfrica, except in South Africa and in a few othercountries”(Swinton and Lowenberg-Deboer2001).

Reasons• High initial investment required

• Most applications have been on large-scale farms

• Mostly implemented where labour is costly butwhere land and capital are less costly

precision Agriculture will be adopted where the technology makes more

efficient use of scarce productive resources.



Challenges of precision Agriculture in Africa

Most applications have been on large-scale farms

• According to (Nagayets 2005), about 80% of the farmsin Africa are smallholdings.

• An agricultural sample survey conducted in Ethiopia

showed that 64.5 % of the farming households haveone or less hectares of land and that female-headedhouseholds have even smaller holdings (CSA 2000).

• In Egypt, ¾ of all farmers are smallholdings (Nagayets2005)

• in Kenya, smallholdings range from 0.2 to 12 hectaresand produce ¾ of agricultural output (Obara 1988,Oxfam (GB) 2000).



Way forward in precision Agriculture in

Africa

• The way forward is taking the technology to the smallscale farmers through Government sponsoredinitiatives, NGO and continuous research.

• Take the message to the farmers that they have to getmore involved in using the emerging technologies

• providing training in the use of GPS equipment and GISsoftware for local technicians

• Need to ensure reliable operation and maintenance of highly specialized equipmentIt is anticipated that the wide acceptance of precision agriculture in Africawill enable the potential of precision agriculture to be fully exploited.



How Do we reach the small scale

farmers

• Utilizing the digital villages by having user friendlyAgricultural extensions

• Utilizing web resources through public forumsand groups e.g. ArcGIS.com

• Easy reporting mechanisms to farmers through

mobile phones (text) and other applications

• Relevant Spatial agricultural data in the NSDI



What do Small scale farmers want?

Relevant Content• Query and answer services

• Suggestions on best practices

• Alternatives to traditional practices

• Predictions on climatic condition and its

effects

• Prediction on yield volume



African Success stories

SUDAN –

GOLDER , an international

company, working with ASBNACO - a Sudan

based company .

Golder uses commercial mechanised farming.As part of this project, the GPS and the GIS

technology has been introduced to help improve farm

productivity while conserving the environment. This has

been achieved through an acquired auto-steer tractor,fitted with a GPS satellite guidance system that controls

tractor steering.




Benefits:

• Cut down planting time on the Agadi farm by 60%

• Spatial yield monitoring (GPS field monitors have also beeninstalled in combine harvesters to monitor yield variations withineach field and produce yield maps)

• Guide fertilizer, seed and agro-chemical applications• Controlled traffic farming (self-steering tractors that limit

movements of tractors to selected rows within a field to reduce soilcompaction and erosion)

• GIS-based farming information and management system mainly to

identify weed infestations, water stress, and crop pest outbreakareas.

• Variable Rate Application (VRA) technology make it possible toselect appropriate chemical applications and prevents unnecessarygroundwater contamination




South Africa - precision irrigation

Farmers in South Africa using groundwater for

irrigation practice precision irrigation.

“This method provides a sustainable and efficient

system of using water and entails application of

optimum quantities of water over the area being

irrigated, based on variability in terms of soiltype, soil water capacity, potential yield and

topography” (Dennis and Nell n.d.)



Resources

• www.esriea.co.ke

• www.trimble.com/agriculture

•

ICTS AND SMALL-SCALE AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA: ASCOPING STUDY- H ILDA MUNYUA 2008



END

Aagw2010 June 10 James Kimani Wanjohi Precision Agriculture in Africa

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