The practice of precision agriculture has been enabled by the advent of GPS and GNSS.
The farmer's and/or researcher's ability to locate their precise position in a field allows for the creation of maps of the spatial variability of as many variables as can be measured
(e.g. crop yield, terrain features/topography,
organic matter content, moisture levels,
nitrogen levels, pH, EC, Mg, K, and others)
Similar data is collected by sensor arrays mounted on GPS-equipped combine harvesters.
These arrays consist of real-time sensors that measure everything from chlorophyll levels to plant water status, along with multispectral imagery.
This data is used in conjunction with satellite imagery by variable rate technology (VRT) including seeders, sprayers, etc. to optimally distribute resources.
Precision agriculture has also been enabled by unmanned aerial vehicles like the DJI Phantom which are relatively inexpensive and can be operated by novice pilots.
These systems, commonly known as drones, can be equipped with hyperspectral or RGB cameras to capture many.images of a field that can be processedusing photogrammetric methods tcreate orthophotos and NDVI maps.
