A Strategic Approach to the Implementation of Precision Agriculture Principles in Cash Crop Farming

Precision agriculture is one of the important agricultural technologies that can assist farmers and managers in promoting long-term success. Precision agriculture can help farm managers increase their management capacity, which is of utmost importance in the highly competitive modern agriculture. Increased yields and/or efficient input use can also be achieved with precision agriculture. Precision agriculture also involve a large capital outlay and requires skills in interpreting the masses of generated data. Modern farmers have to engage in pro-active thinking with regard to suitable agricultural systems that can enhance sustainable success of their farming businesses. Farm managers who are contemplating on getting involved in precision agriculture need to undergo a paradigm shift or a mind shift. This paper proposes a set of guidelines on how the process of implementing precision agriculture can be strategically approached in a holistic way.