AAAID Adopting Precision Farming Technology to Improve Farm Management at the Rain-fed Sector in Sudan

Abstract

Precision farming (PF) is a product of a variety of technical and economical aspects of agriculture. It is an approach that allows more efficient use of inputs and outputs. It improves management system, diagnoses crop problems, and increases equipment efficiency, optimizes profit, and minimizes environmental impact. Application of PF is becoming of increasing importance and its availability increased by recent technological development in positioning, sensing and control systems such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (AAAID) has a growing reputation as a leader in adopting and promoting modern agricultural technologies into the Arab countries. AAAID has introduced a full package of zero-tillage system as a substitute for the traditional farming system at Agadi (one of AAAID’s activities in the rainfed sector in Sudan). The system was implemented in 2000 at a large experimental trial followed by a pilot farm in year 2001 and 2002. A considerable improvement in yield of cotton, sunflower and sorghum was achieved. Along with such system, AAAID is intending to adopt PF in 2003 at Agadi. This is based on a demonstration trial where a yield base map was generated with the Global Positioning Systems at harvesting time for a sorghum field at Agadi. This article addresses a brief background about the PF, its rational at Agadi and the AAAID’s master plan of its adoption