Is remote sensing the answer to todays agriculture problems?
American Society of Agronomy Today’s wheat growers face many economic and environmental challenges, but arguably their greatest challenge is the efficient use of fertilizer. Growers need to apply nitrogen-based fertilizer in sufficient quantities to achieve the highest possible crop yields without over-applying – a situation that could lead to serious environmental effects. In wheat, a critical factor comes down to timing in order to determine how efficiently plants will use nitrogen fertilizer. Current methods for determining the optimum timing of nitrogen fertilizer application can be costly, time consuming, and difficult. To assist wheat growers, scientists at North Carolina State University recently developed a technique to properly time nitrogen fertilizer applications. The technique? Remote sensing – a relatively new technology to today’s modern agriculture that uses aerial photography and satellite imagery. In this 2000-2001 study, scientists used remote sensing in the form of i
