=== Precision Farming ===


Precision agriculture is a method of production in which an area of land is not uniformly, but site specifically cultivated. Pest-control, crop-protection, soil-treatment and fertilizing are done time-and-place specific and on the basis of detailed records of previous years. This is made possible by **Soil Scanners**,**Remote Sensing** and **Global Positioning Systems**. Land can be treated with centimeter precision. This method can greatly reduce the use of pesticides (25%) and fertilizer. Geo-referenced soil maps are built up over the years. By overlapping these charts the farmer gets a new picture of his lands and with harvest data systems a new picture of his yields.


{{:geomap.jpg|}}


from: soilcompany.nl

  * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_agriculture|Wikipedia page]]
  * [[http://agriconenergy.blogspot.com/2007/08/precision-farming.html| blog post]]

=== Problems ===
  * **Colony Collapse Disorder**; Intense farming is associated with high efficiency, these extreme monocultures are now associated with the scarcity of bees. These insects depend upon wildflowers for most of their food. In Precision agriculture there are no patches of wildflowers along the edges of fields. The lack of wildflowers is thought to be one of the contributing factors to colony collapse disorder. See [[bee_keeping]]