Deforested land in Burkina Faso

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Optimal farm planning, efficient management of farmers’ fields , precision agriculture

management practicesDated 16th Oct 2015.

Steps in presentation

1. Optimal farm planning2. Efficient management of farmers’ fields3. precision agriculture management

practices

Optimal Farming and optimal farm plan

Farm planning is a process of working out in advance how many farm resources are going to be used in which enterprises for the whole farm over a specified period of time. A farm plan is the result of the farm planning process. It is a statement of the enterprises to be undertaken over this time period

Optimal farming(1) The income generated by the optimal farm plan was higher than the income

from the observed farm plan(2) Optimization brought about a change in land use patterns; (3) Operating capital, November labour and irrigated land in the second season

were the major limiting resources to farm income improvement; (4) Farmers are risk efficient and changes in risk aversion affect the (5) enterprise mix of the optimal farm plans.

A Optimal-farm plan is an outline or summary of the type and volume of production to be carried out on the entire farm and the resources needed to do it. When the expected costs and returns for each part of the plan are organized into a detailed projection, the result's is a whole-farm budget

Aims of Optimal Farm Planning

Show how Optimal-farm planning differs from the planning of individual enterprises

Learn the steps and procedures to follow in developing a Optimal-farm plan

Understand the uses for a Optimal -farm plan and budget

Compare the assumptions used for short-run and long-run budgeting

Introduce linear programming as a tool for Optimal -farm planning

Procedure for Developing a Optimal -Farm Plan

1. Formulate farm goals2. Choose enterprises3. Assess available resources4. Identify possible enterprises5. Prepare whole-farm budg

1.Formulate farm goals

The goals of the farmer will affect the whole-farm plan if, as is common, maximizing profit is not the sole goal. Other goals might relate to security, status, fulfilling social and family obligations, spending time in activities off the farm and so on

2.Inventory of available resources

This is a necessary first step in assessing the farm potential before calculating gross margins The inventory should include the amount and quality of land and its related resources (for example, soils and vegetation), standing crops (including useful trees), family labour, livestock, machinery, buildings, off-farm financial investments, cash on hand and in the bank, and financial liabilities.

3.Identify possible enterprises

Accurate technical information about how farmers operate their enterprises is the basis for any form of financial analysis in farm management. The technical and financial information needed to make commercial farm decisions takes many different forms.

4.Estimate gross margins and choose enterprises

1. Enter as much of this enterprise in the farm plan as resources allow. For example, presume that Strawberry is the most desirable enterprise from the farmer’s point of view. However, he might only get an export contract for 12 tones and is therefore restricted to putting a limit of 1 acre on this enterprise.

2. Enterprises would be added to the farm plan until it is not possible to add any more without reducing the total benefits that the farmer receives from production.

3. Partial budgeting, labour scheduling and cash flow budgeting help the farmer to change the enterprise mix until maximum benefits are obtained

5.Prepare the optimal -farm budget

This information is in two parts.

The first part is the information on the areas and gross margins per acre of the enterprises. They are multiplied by each other to obtain the total gross margin for the farm. This means information on variable costs is automatically included.

Note that the budgets for crop enterprises are expressed on a per acre basis. Budgets for livestock enterprises may be expressed on a per animal basis

The second part is the information on fixed costs, which has not been included in the gross margins. Fixed costs are added to obtain total fixed costs. This amount is then subtracted from the aggregate of the enterprise gross margins to obtain net farm earnings.

Resources

Land: total number of acres, types of land, fertility levels, climate, potential pests, tenure arrangements and leases, etc.

Buildings: number, type, conditionLabor: quantity and qualityMachinery: number, size, and capacityCapital: short-run and long-run availabilityManagement: age, experience, and past

performanceOther resources: markets, quotas, specialized

inputs

Example of Optimal -Farm Planning

Brief Explanation of the Following Slides.

The next few slides looks at one paddock across three months grazing history.

The Rapid Pasture Sensor was used in the paddock pre and post grazing.

No other forms of information are currently available for this particular paddock.

The raster files viewed are created by the FarmWorks Kriging program.

Efficient management of farmers’ fields through modern techniques

New information and communication technologies (NICT) make field-level crop management more operational and easier to achieve for farmers. Application of crop management decisions calls for agricultural equipment that supports variable-rate technology (VRT), for example varying seed density along with variable-rate application (VRA) of nitrogen and phytosanitary products.

Precision agriculture uses technology on agricultural equipment (e.g. tractors, sprayers, harvestors, etc.):

Geographic positioning system (e.g. GPS receivers that use satellite signals to precisely determine a position on the globe);

Geographic information systems (GIS), i.e., software that makes sense of all the available data;variable-rate farming equipment (seeder, spreader).

Geolocation of a field enables the farmer to overlay information gathered from analysis of soils and residual nitrogen, and information on previous crops and soil resistivity. Geolocation is done in two ways:The field is delineated using an in-vehicle GPS receiver as the farmer drives a tractor around the field.

The field is delineated on a base map derived from aerial or satellite imagery. The base images must have the right level of resolution and geometric quality to ensure that Geolocation is sufficiently accurate.

Efficient management of farmers’ fields through modern techniques contd

Characterizing variability

Intra- and inter-field variability may result from a number of factors. These include climatic conditions (hail, drought, rain, etc. ), soils (texture, depth, nitrogen levels), cropping practices (no-till farming), weeds and disease. Permanent indicators chiefly soil indicators—provide farmers with information about the main environmental constants. Point indicators allow them to track a crop’s status, i.e., to see whether diseases are developing, if the crop is suffering from water stress, nitrogen stress, or lodging, whether it has been damaged by ice and so on. This information may come from weather stations and other sensors (soil electrical resistivity, detection with the naked eye, satellite imagery, etc.). Soil resistivity measurements combined with soil analysis make it possible to precisely map agro-pedological conditions

Efficient management of farmers’ fields through modern Practices

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1.Integrated Farm Management (IFM) 2 .Integrated Pest Management ( IPM)/FFS/GAP 3. Integrated Nutrient Management (INM)/ Soil fertility 4. Integrated Weed Management (IWM) /Weeds 5. Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)/Drip/Sprinkler 6.Integrated Natural Resources Management /INRM 7.Agriculture Information Management (AIM)/GIS/GPS/ICT 8. Integrated agriculture-aquaculture technology 9.Integrated Farm Forestry 10.Integrated Sustainable waste management

1.Integrated Farm Management

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2, Integrated Pest Management

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3.Integrated Nutrient Management

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4. Integrated weed management

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5. Integrated water resource management

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6.Integrated Natural Resources Management /INRM

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7.Agriculture Information Management

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8. Integrated agriculture-aquaculture technology

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9. Integrated Farm Forestry

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10.Integrated Sustainable waste management

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Precision agriculture around the world

The concept of precision agriculture first emerged in the United States in the early 1980s. In 1985, researchers at the University of Minnesota varied lime inputs in crop fields. It was also at this time that the practice of grid sampling appeared (applying a fixed grid of one sample per hectare). Towards the end of the 1980s, this technique was used to derive the first input recommendation maps for fertilizers and pH corrections. The use of yield sensors developed from new technologies, combined with the advent of GPS receivers, has been gaining ground ever since. The development of GPS and variable-rate spreading techniques helped to anchor precision farming management practices. Uptake of GPS is more widespread. But this hasn’t stopped them using precision agriculture services, which supplies field-level recommendation maps.

Objectives of Precision Agriculture

Precision agriculture aims to optimize field-level management with regard to: crop science: by matching farming practices more closely to crop needs (e.g.

fertilizer inputs) environmental protection: by reducing environmental risks and footprint of

farming (e.g. limiting leaching of nitrogen); economics: by boosting competitiveness through more efficient practices (e.g. improved management of fertilizer usage and other inputs).

Precision agriculture also provides farmers with a wealth of information to: build up a record of their farm; improve decision-making; foster greater traceability enhance marketing of farm products improve lease arrangements and relationship with landlords enhance the inherent quality of farm products (e.g. protein level in bread-

flour wheat)

Economic and environmental impacts of precision agriculture

1.Reduce the amount of nutrient and other crop inputs used while boosting yields. Farmers thus obtain a return on their investment by saving on phytosanitary and fertilizer costs.

2.The second, larger-scale benefit of targeting inputs—in spatial, temporal and quantitative terms Applying the right amount of inputs in the right place and at the right time benefits crops, soils and groundwater, and thus the entire crop cycle.

3. Consequently, precision agriculture has become a cornerstone of sustainable agriculture, since it respects crops, soils and farmers.

4.Sustainable agriculture seeks to assure a continued supply of food within the ecological, economic and social limits required to sustain production in the long term. Precision agriculture therefore seeks to use high-tech systems in pursuit of this goal.

Suggestion for Optimal Farming and precision agriculture

1. Improve the way of producing an existing output with existing inputs. Example: Use hedgerows on slopes to conserve land resources.

2. Use a new input. Example: Hire and use modern machinery to replace labour cultivating land.

3. Modify an existing input. Example: New tomato seed variety.

4. Introduce a new enterprise. Example: novel vegetables . 5. Change the mix of existing enterprises. Example: New

intercropping, alley cropping. 6. Change the timing of a farming operation. Example:

Integrated managements.

Suggestion for Optimal Farming and precision agriculture contd

7. Improve the quality of an existing product. Example: Mango exports to Europe .

8. Use a new marketing opportunity for an existing product. Example: Export of vegetables and fruit.

9. Use a new way of promoting an existing product. Example: Get an organic product certificate, use HTFA for disease-free exports.

10. Use by the farmer of a new processing method before selling an output. Example: Replace drying of Dates with solar drying.

11. Use a new way of extending the shelf life of an output. Example: Packaging of vegetables.

12. Change market relations. Example: contract farming.

Suggestion for Optimal Farming and precision agriculture contd

13. GIS displays maps that are made from collected data. 14 Variable rate technology (VRT) allows site specific application of fertilizer, chemicals, and planting. By using VRT, environmental impact is reduced due to soil receiving only what it needs, instead of too much or little. 15. Yield monitors use GPS to record crop yields at a specific location. These work by measuring the volume, moisture, and weight of a crop as it passes through the combine. The results are then used to create a map, allowing a farmer to know where high and low yielding areas in a field are. 16. Sensors and remote sensing are also used. Sensors can be used to determine weed infestation,