What do sensors tell us about crops?

Abstract

Crop sensors provide farmers with rapid, objective, quantitative and precise (repeatable) measurements difficult or impossible to obtain by other means. Those data, usually acquired during the 1st stage of the PA cycle (see the first Precision Ag Corner in our November 2016 edition), need to be turned into information (2nd stage) to help them make optimal management decisions (3rd stage). As our readers now well know, New Ag International has partnered with the Research Group on AgroICT & Precision Agriculture (GRAP) of the University of Lleida-Agrotecnio Center in Catalonia, Spain. In every issue of the magazine José A. Martínez-Casasnovas, Jaume Arnó and Alexandre Escolà, with our Editorial Team, put together an editorial whose ambition is to help the various stakeholders bridge the gap between datanomics and commercial farming! In the previous Precision Ag Corner in September, we covered general aspects related to sensing. In this issue we review some of the most relevant sensing techniques, either remote or proximal, used to gather information on the crop.