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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Farming by satellites : how West Country farmers were being driven to, and by, precision agricultural systems

Addicott, James Edward January 2018 (has links)
Precision farming integrates satellite coordination and information communication technologies into farming practices to deliver self-driving and auto-regulating machinery and equipment to farmers, who can afford to invest, right across the globe. It is often sold on the basis that it can help clean up or ‘ecologically modernise’ conventional, industrial agriculture. It should also increase production rates in industrial agriculture to help to ‘feed the world’ as well as being cost effective in ways that could make farmers more money – miracle-grow formula and win-win technology. There are critical concerns that precision farming facilitates a continuing trend of transnational firms appropriating control over agricultural industries. Many neo-Marxist or neo-Weberian critics contend that any ‘green’ benefits fall secondary to the more dominant social and economic trend of ongoing capital accumulation, increasing rationalisation and industrial progress that has been deemed detrimental to natural environments and human populations. These social and economic pressures are actually the real drivers in change. Rather than greening industrial agriculture, precision farming is another way of masking over and profiting from the risks caused by ongoing capitalist accumulation and industrial agriculture. The other set of concerns are to do with human culture and labour. Farming is the grass roots of modern civilisation and dependent upon human labour, knowledge and cultural methods. With the introduction of data over knowledge, and auto-steering tractors over human labour and skills, what kinds of impacts will this have on farm families, rural cultures within countryside landscapes in Britain or other countries where precision farming is being adopted? As a farmer’s son, I was concerned about the impact the computerisation of agriculture will have on family farms, nature and rural communities. I spent four years interviewing and working with a cooperative group of Duchy of Cornwall farmers in the West Country of England. I wanted to know why they were using these new technologies and the kinds of benefits, impacts or outcomes that they experienced following adoption. The results tend to confirm critics’ concerns, unfortunately. Precision farming has much more to do with the organising of agricultural production. The restructuring of farming by way of precision farming greater empowers transnational agribusinesses and Agri-Food supply chains, rather than protecting the environment, feeding hungry people or making family farming more sustainable. I conclude my research by suggesting that it is not technology, or agricultural technologies such as precision farming that will deliver these end goals in and of them selves. There could be room to improve precision farming systems if they are coupled with well-managed policy designs and agri-environmental schemes.
2

AGRICULTURA DE PRECISÃO EM ÁREAS IRRIGADAS COM PIVÔ CENTRAL NO RIO GRANDE DO SUL / PRECISION FARMING IN IRRIGATE CROPLAND BY CENTER PIVOT IN RIO GRANDE DO SUL STATE

Lemainski, Claudio Luiz 16 February 2007 (has links)
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The search for new technologies that could increase crop yields encourages a growing number of Brazilian farms to use precision farming. Although precision farming principles are not new, only in last two decades has it been applied in a whole cycle in Brazil. The center pivot is increasing the area of implementation, although economic analysis is scarce. The knowledge of soil and yield variability is an important tool to achieve positive results in irrigated areas. The main objective of this work was to quantify the soil fertility indicators within the whole areas, and soil physics and soil fertility indicators within management zones, which were defined based on temporal yield maps. The net return of the irrigated area was compared to dry cropland in one farm. The work was carried out in two grain farms in Trindade do Sul in 51.8 ha and Palmeira das Missões in 57.3 ha. The soil is an Oxisol and the weather is cfa following Koeppen classification. The sampling in each management zone was in 0-0.05, 0.05-0.10 and 0.10-0.20 soil depth. The yield monitoring was done by Massey Fergurson MF 34 and CASE 2388 combines. The yields were monitored in 2005/06 and 2006/06 to black bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in Trindade do Sul. In Palmeira das Missões the maize (Zea mays) were monitored in 2002/03 and 2003/04 (irrigated) and 2001/02 and 2004/05 (dry land). In both farms no-tillage system has been used for ten years. The soil data was analyzed by statistic, spatial variability and multivaried analysis. The yields were classified in low, medium, and high yield. The farms showed different soil indicators. In Trindade do Sul 55.8% of the area had pH water < 5.4, while in Palmeira das Missões 100% of the area had pH water > 5.7. The K, in both farms, had levels higher than 118 mg dm-3. 7.1% of area in Trindade do Sul showed the P lower than 6 mg dm-3 and in Palmeira das Missões the P levels were higher than 11 mg dm-3. The P had the lower range among the nutrients investigated. The multiple analyses showed that 6 and 4 main components explained 83 and 87% of yield variation in Trindade do Sul and Palmeira das Missões, respectively. In Palmeira das Missões the soil physics indicators in each yield zones showed that lower yields were associated with bulk density of 1.42 g cm-3, macroporosity of 8% in 0.1 to 0.2 m depth, AWC of 32.4 mm. The economic analysis indicated that the irrigated area allowed 19.7% of increase in net return compared to dry land. / A constante busca por tecnologias que permitam a potencialização do rendimento de áreas agrícolas fez com que a agricultura de precisão fosse adotada por um número crescente de agricultores no Brasil. A agricultura de precisão não é uma filosofia de manejo recente, entretanto somente nas últimas décadas está sendo implementada em seu completo contexto. No Rio Grande do Sul, a irrigação está presente em muitas propriedades agrícolas, as quais, por apresentar um sistema de produção diferenciado, carecem de informações ligadas à efetividade na aplicação de recursos e de seu retorno na forma de rentabilidade. Nessas propriedades, em especial, o conhecimento da variabilidade do solo e do rendimento é de grande importância para o sucesso da atividade. Nesse sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho foi quantificar e avaliar a variabilidade existente nos atributos químicos do solo em área total; químicos e físicos, em zonas de rendimento estabelecidas e, por fim, analisar economicamente a rentabilidade que o sistema irrigado de produção proporciona, frente ao de sequeiro. O estudo foi conduzido em duas propriedades agrícolas comerciais, localizadas nos municípios de Trindade do Sul (TS) e Palmeira das Missões (PM), ambas no Rio Grande do Sul. As lavouras estudadas perfazem, respectivamente, 51,8 e 58,2 hectares irrigados com pivô central e 57,3 hectares de sequeiro, em PM. As amostragens para fins de caracterização foram realizadas na profundidade de 0-0,1 m, enquanto que para comparação das zonas de rendimento, foram nas profundidades de 0-0,05 0,05-0,1 e 0,1 0,2 m. Os dados de rendimento foram obtidos a partir de duas colhedoras (Massey Ferguson modelo MF 34 e CASE modelo 2388) as quais estavam equipadas com os sistemas Fieldstar® e AFS® de Agricultura de Precisão, respectivamente. As safras estudadas foram 2005/06 e 2006/06 na cultura do feijão, na área de TS, enquanto que em PM foram estudadas as safras 2002/03 e 2003/04 (irrigadas); 2001/2002 e 2004/05 (sequeiro) para a cultura do milho, sendo que, em ambas as áreas, o plantio direto é utilizado a mais de dez anos. Os dados de solo foram submetidos primeiramente à análise de estatística básica, dependência espacial e, posteriormente, à análise multivariada pelo método de componentes principais. Os rendimentos espacializados, após terem sido submetidos à análise de estatística básica, foram classificados para definição das zonas de rendimento (Baixa, Média e Alta). A variabilidade química do solo nas áreas estudadas comportou-se de maneira distinta. Em TS, 55,8% da área apresentou o pH abaixo de 5,4 enquanto em PM 100% da área apresentou com pH acima de 5,7. Em ambas as áreas os teores de potássio foram superiores a 118 mg dm-3. 7,1% da área apresentou teores de fósforo abaixo de 6 mg dm-3 em TS, entretanto, na área de PM os teores encontrados foram superiores a 11 mg dm-3. O fósforo foi o atributo químico que apresentou dependência espacial com menor alcance obteve nas áreas estudadas. A análise multivariada revelou a existência de 6 e 4 componentes principais, os quais explicam 83 e 87% da variância total existente nas áreas de TS e PM, respectivamente. A avaliação física das zonas de diferentes rendimentos revelou que na área PM a zona de baixo rendimento apresentou a densidade de 1,42 g cm-3, macroporosidade de 8% na profundidade de 0,1-0,2 m, enquanto que a capacidade de água disponível na camada de 0-0,2 m foi de 32,4 mm. Os dados econômicos indicam que a área irrigada possui um ganho de rentabilidade na ordem de 19,7 % superior à lavoura cultivada em sequeiro.

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