Precision agriculture or AgTech is doing good agronomy through technological tools that allow optimizing the use of inputs, with the aim of increasing productivity, reducing costs and protecting the environment in all types of crops and fruit trees.
In line with precision agriculture and the various alternatives that this model offers for producers, we interviewed Carolina Orellana, AgTech technical support at Summit Agro Chile.
“There are various technological tools on the market that allow the evaluation of the conditions of crops and fruit trees. For example, one of the most commonly used indicators to evaluate biomass is the Normalized Difference Vigor Index (NDVI), which allows determining areas of different vigor within the property with the purpose of improving uniformity and productivity on the property.", said Carolina Orellana.
«By integrating this data with other site-specific variables such as soil characteristics, climate, irrigation, species, etc., it is possible to determine responses that allow us to optimize the use of amendments and fertilizers, care for the environment, and in turn obtain increases in production, improve quality, extend post-harvest life, reduce costs, among others.", added the professional.
Likewise, AgTech technical support referred to the gradual and growing development of technology, arguing that: “More than 20 years ago, the first precision agriculture practices were initiated in Chile, and today it is already a widely used concept, in which there is still much room for growth and development.«.
Four years ago, Summit Agro Chile began its alliance with the precision agriculture company NeoAg to offer different technological services, such as soil mapping, Soilscan; canopy monitoring, Canopyscan and Satellitescan; and Yieldscan yield prediction projects. All these tools allow producers to evaluate and learn, through data extracted from their fields, how to deal with the different problems of their crops and fruit trees, in order to improve production, optimize resources and protect the environment.
