Alejandro Nin-Pratt, Jawoo Koo, and David J Spielman, International Food Policy Research Institute Presented at the ReSAKSS-Asia conference “Agriculture and Rural Transformation in Asia: Past Experiences and Future Opportunities”. An international conference jointly organized by ReSAKSS-Asia, IFPRI, TDRI, and TVSEP project of Leibniz Universit Hannover with support from USAID and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) at the Dusit Thani Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand December 12–14, 2017.

1. Precision agriculture in smallholder
systems
From innovation to evidence
Alejandro Nin-Pratt, Jawoo Koo, and David J Spielman
International Food Policy Research Institute
Washington, DC

2. Precision Agriculture
(PA)
• Is an approach to farm
management that uses
information technology (IT) to
control for intra-field variability
in crops and environment,
ensuring that crops and soil
receive the exact amount of
inputs needed to increase
profitability, sustainability and
protection of the environment.
Deere & Company, 2014

3. The information
technologies in PA
• Location determination (via
the Global Positioning System,
GPS),
• Computerized geographic
information systems (GIS),
• Computer-guided
controllers for variable rate
application (VRA) of crop
inputs, and
• Sensing technologies for
automated data collection and
mapping.

4. Most used PA practices
The GPS and GIS
technologies underpin the
two major PA practices that
farmers have adopted:
1. Nutrient management:
Involves spatially
referenced soil sampling,
linked to VRA fertilizer
spreading.
2. Yield monitoring, usually
tied to yield mapping
Credit:RhiannanPrice(DigitalGlobe)Credit:RhiannanPrice(DigitalGlobe)

5. Could these technologies
benefit smallholders?
• Does PA has the potential to
improved economic results of
smallholder producers?
• How do they affect crop yields
and revenues? Is there clear
evidence of improved yields when
using these technologies?
• What is the impact of PA on
costs?
• How does affect risks and
variability of results?
• Is PA biased against smallholders?

6. Food Security in a World of Natural Resource
Scarcity: The Role of Agricultural Technologies
• Global & regional
• Eleven technologies
• Three crops:
• Wheat
• Rice
• Maize
• No-Tillage
• Integrated Soil Fertility
Management
• Organic Agriculture
• Precision Agriculture
• Crop Protection
• Drip Irrigation
• Sprinkler Irrigation
• Water Harvesting
• Drought Tolerance
• Heat Tolerance
• Nitrogen Use Efficiency

7. Modelling tools
DSSAT
• Biophysical model - Simulate plant growth and crop yield by variety
day-by-day, in response to a technology at crop-specific locations using
local climate, soil and topographical attributes.
 IMPACT
Global economic agricultural model - Assesses changes in productivity
due to technology adoption and its impacts on:
˗ Food production, consumption, trade
˗ International food prices
˗ Calorie availability, food security

8. Modelling the
impact of PA
The multiple effects of PA are
implemented using three
components:
• Higher/optimum planting
density for each crop;
• Enhanced inorganic
fertilizer application
scheduling based on the
growth stage of the crop
• Optimum planting window,
assuming a 25-millimeter
rainfall event on the
planting date.

9. Yields: Will it
Make a
Difference?
Global-scale adoption
of water and
nutrition-efficient
management
practices can increase
cereal productivity by
8-26%.
Global Crop Modeling Results
YieldChange(%)forMaize,Rice,andWheat,2050vs.Baseline
Source:Rosegrantetal.2014

10. Not only PA
Good management
decisions can
increase maize
yields by 40% when
combined with
other inputs
(improved seeds
and fertilizer)
Regional Crop Modeling Results | Mbeya,
Tanzania
YieldChange(%)forMaize,FertilizerxSeedsxAgronomy
Source:Rosegrantetal.2014

11. Adoption of PA technologies
• Most attractive where capital is abundant relative to
management labor
• Considering that they improve the efficiency of input use in
mechanized agriculture, they are likely to be adopted first in
those places where input use is already relatively efficient.
• Higher probability of adoption where the scale of a single
field is large relative to the temporal variation in crop
yield. If the opposite is true, then the optimal risk aversion
strategy is uniform management.

12. Opportunities for small and medium farmers
• Most benefits expected in regions where small farmers are already producing
efficiently with high levels of inputs and controlled environment (relatively
low inter-temporal variation).
• PA could contribute to a better management of the environment, helping
farmers use the right inputs, at the right time, in the right amount and at the right
place
• Advances in IT in the longer run could favor the adoption of PA by medium and
small scale farmers by reducing the bias of the technology favoring large
capital-intensive farmers:
• Hand held soil and other sensors linked to cell phones
• Robotics for planting, weeding, pest management and harvesting fruit, vegetables and other
hard to mechanize crops
• Pooling data for better management insights

13. What would be needed for smallholders to
seize this opportunity?
Public good aspects of PA
• Multinational companies may not recognize the opportunity early in the
process. Local research and development will probably require public
investment and innovation policies
Other policies that contribute to technical change
• Investment, regulatory, and financial policies
• Entrepreneurship that creates supply chains that favor adoption of
innovations