Harnessing precision agriculture techniques to mitigate climate change effects - strategies, challenges, and opportunities.

Abstract

Climate change is projected to significantly impact on crop production by altering temperature and water availability. To counteract these repercussions while sustaining development, mitigation and adaptation measures are essential. Proactive management of agricultural practices coupled with appropriate technologies has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously increasing agricultural output and income. Precision agriculture emerges as a promising avenue mitigating the effects of climate change. By optimizing agricultural inputs, precision agriculture can achieve similar or greater yields at lower costs compared to conventional approaches. However, the scholarly literature on Precision Agriculture Techniques (PAT) is fragmented and lacks sufficient empirical evidence, particularly in terms of field investigations. This research aims to assess the potential of precision agriculture techniques in mitigating climate change effects, identify strategies for integrating precision agriculture with broader adaptation efforts and explore the obstacles and opportunities for widespread adoption. A comprehensive evaluation of existing literature establishes the framework categorizing PAT principles into recording, reacting and guidance technologies. The seamless integration of these categories holds the potential to improve agricultural output and quality while minimizing the environmental impact. Despite its potential benefits global adoption rates for precision agriculture techniques remain low, attributed to factors such as, high investment costs, small farm sizes, and the advanced age of farmers. Incentives aimed at enhancing the economic performance of farms, along with non-monetary support such as technical advice could potentially bolster PAT adoption. Precision agriculture presents a cost-effective strategy for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and it is anticipated to garner universal support within the agricultural community. Therefore, its incorporation should be taken into consideration in both the current and the future agricultural strategies.