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System for the automatic generation of yield mapping with application in precision farming

Abstract:

The growing environmental concern and the necessity to produce quality foods in a sustainable way which respects the environment have put the agricultural sector under the scrutiny of society. The employment of the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in the civilian sector has sparked the emergence of new technological applications, in agriculture and very particularly in Precision Agriculture, considered to be among the 10 most important sciences for the XXI century. Precision agriculture refers to the application of different treatments at the local cultivation scale, which achieves greater production and better product quality with lower costs. Agricultural yield is the best indicator of the entire cultivation cycle of a crop; its census and mapping allows the variability of the area to be determined and managed. To achieve this it is necessary to produce a yield map of the cultivated area; once the yield of each point (understood to be a very small area inside a field, for example a cell of a square meter) is obtained, variable doses of pesticides, fertilizers, etc. may be applied, contributing to minimize production costs and to achieve a better environmental balance.