That kind of futuristic whimsy has blossomed from pipe dream to possibility. Today genetically engineered crops resist drought and disease, and powerful new pesticides deliver a more lethal blow than ever to the assorted blights, smuts and borers that plague our fields. And now, as we approach the millennium, a new system of crop management called precision farming is bringing agriculture into the Information Age.
Precision farming is based on the idea that no two clumps of dirt are alike. The ““modern’’ agriculture of the last 50 years has tended to treat whole tracts of land, from back porch to fence post, as great, homogenous plots of potting soil. Some areas end up overfertilized; others don’t get enough herbicide. Still others get the wrong seed variety, so costs soar and crop yields suffer. Precision farming delivers more personalized attention. As Daney Keppel of the National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants says, the point is simple: ““If you spoon-feed each plant based on what it needs, it’ll probably do better.''
You won’t find bottle-fed rutabagas at the corner market yet, but the first generation of precision farming systems is already in the field. Employing such innovations as Global Positioning Satellites (GPS), computer mapping systems and a Star Trek-like crop monitor that uses beams of light to get a reading of ““plant health,’’ the technology is allowing farmers to collect and absorb unprecedented amounts of data about their fields and crops, and to tailor their husbandry to the findings. Lasers measure field topography–the hills and valleys–and multiple soil samples are analyzed for fertility, salinity, pH and a dozen more obscure properties. Satellite images are used to pinpoint problem areas in the fields. Every sandy patch, stand of Russian thistle and shortage of phosphorus is recorded with GPS locators and plotted out on maps so that the same area can be monitored year after year, ““to within a tabletop of the same points,’’ according to Dennis Berglund, a crop consultant in Twin Valley, Minn. At harvest, electronic yield monitors built into combines automatically log the weight and quality of the crop.
The venerable tractor, already transformed from a bucking, gasping, dirt-clogged endurance test into an air-conditioned entertainment center on wheels, is due for another update. On-board computers, informed by field- specific databases, can control exactly where fertilizer is applied, and how much. Similar systems are under development for spraying pesticides and planting seed. Engineering teams are working on systems that will vary not just the quantity but the type of chemical or seed used. Got a saline patch in your wheat field? In goes a seed genetically engineered to sprout from a salt shaker. ““It’s like a kid in the candy store in terms of what we can do in the field now,’’ says Bernie Poore, manager of Future Product Development at John Deere. Poore can’t give too many details on what Deere will be showing off at the next Farm Progress Show, but you might want to keep an eye out for ““smart zappers’’–tractor attachments that can distinguish weeds from wheat and adjust herbicide delivery accordingly. And that self-operating, satellite-driven, laser-guided agri-bot from the textbooks? ““Oh, sure,’’ says Poore. ““We could do that. But just because we can do it doesn’t mean it’s better.’’ Is precision farming really better? The jury–prospective techno-farmers–is still out, but don’t be surprised to see John Deere pocket protectors soon.
