Farmer trials and experience prove the adoption of precision agriculture technologies is profitable in Western Australia (WA)

摘要

The marked increase during the last two years, in costs of fuel (30%) and fertiliser (18%) has contributed to increasing uptake of precision agriculture (PA) technologies in Western Australia. The on-farm trials and farmer observations reported in this paper indicate, in most cases, that the contributing farmers are obtaining a return on investment in the order of 300% over three years. Payback generally occurs within the first year, except at the upper end of investment (A 120,000 dollar). Their results are supported by economic modelling. For those farmers yet to take up this technology, cost, lack of compatibility of equipment, data collation and analysis are still perceived as barriers to adoption.