Pros and cons of VRT in Indian Agriculture as compared to Developed countries

Variable-rate technology (VRT) allows fertilizer,
chemicals, lime, gypsum, irrigation water and other farm
inputs to be applied at different rates across a field,
without manually changing rate settings on equipment
or having to make multiple passes over an area.
Variable-rate application (VRA) can range from the
simple control of flow rate to the more complex
management of rate, chemical mix and application
pattern. VRA can match changes in crop yield potential
with specific input rates resulting in a more efficient
system and minimising potential environmental impacts.
VRT can be used to deal with spatial variability between
paddocks or between management zones/classes. There
are two types of VRT:
1. Map-based control: a map of application rates is
produced for the field prior to the operation.
2. Real-time control: decisions about what rates
to apply in different locations are made using
information gathered during the operation. This
requires sensors to detect necessary information
‘on-the-go’ and is usually designed for a specific
job such as herbicide application.

1. 1 Pros and cons of VRT in Indian Agriculture as compared to Developed countries Pragya Naithani 45979 PhD . Agronomy GBPUAT Pantnagar

2. What is Variable Rate Technology ? VRT in precision agriculture is an area of technology that focuses on the automated application of inputs like fertilizers, chemicals, irrigation and seeds at a variable rate to a given landscape, to satisfy crops demand according to the need. 2

3. Map-based VRT Sensor-based VRT Application rate is calculated in advance before entering into the field Application rate is evaluated instantly on field, i.e., "real time”. Application rates are based on VRA prescription maps, (prepared by agronomist) based on data source like GIS Application rate are calculated by variable rate applicator based on sensors that are local to applicator. Variability in field factors is evaluated using GIS, DGPS and interpreted using GNSS. Sensors detect the necessary information, "on the go”. On the basis of Application method, VRT has been segmented as : 3 Other VRTs :- Leaf color chart (LCC) based N management Laser based land leveling Green seeker SPAD Mondal and Basu (2009)

4. Ivanov Igor, 2018 4

5. 5

6. 6 Advantages of Variable Rate Technology

7. 7 Agronomic Improvements

8. 8 Advantages of VRT in Weed Management Reduced Herbicide application rate with VRT in maize. Application rate (l/ha) Reduction in herbicide use (%) S.No . Constant rate application Variable rate application 1 297.61 162.33 45.46 2 297.61 160.25 46.15 3 297.61 145.34 51.16 4 297.61 154.32 48.14 5 297.61 127.55 57.14 Reduced Herbicide application rate with VRT in groundnut . Application rate (l/ha) Reduction in herbicide use (%) S.No . Constant rate application Variable rate application 1 297.61 178.57 40 2 297.61 173.61 41.67 3 297.61 166.67 44 4 297.61 168.91 43.24 5 297.61 156.25 47.49 Tewari et al (2014), IIT Kharagpur

9. Nitrogen management through LCC and SPAD on yield and yield attributes of wheat 9 Reena et al ., 2017 GBPUAT, Pantnagar Yield Advantages through VRT in N management

10. 10 Crop Average grain yield (t/ha) CD@5% SSNM RDF FFP Maize 7.02 5.98 5.44 0.48 Rice 8.34 7.47 6.74 0.63 Wheat 3.79 3.22 2.85 0.28 Sorghum 2.56 2.09 1.89 0.18 Sunflower 2.44 2.01 1.8 0.15 Chickpea 2.39 1.99 1.89 0.1 Cotton* 2.55 2.21 2.01 0.17 Chilli** 2.18 1.94 1.76 0.16 *seed cotton yield, **dry chili yield Bana et al ., 2020 Jobner , Rajasthan Effect of SSNM on Yield of different crops Yield Advantages of VRT in N management

11. 11 Effect of Laser land levelling in Rice and Wheat Treatments Effective tiller m- 2 No. of grains/spike 1000 grain wt.(g) Grain yield (t ha -1 ) Net Income ( ₹ /ha) B:C ratio Rice Wheat Rice Wheat Rice Wheat Rice Wheat Rice Wheat Rice Wheat Laser land levelling 318 325 132 42.4 24.3 41.7 4.70 4.91 90380 72649 3.46 3.24 Traditional levelling 302 310 121 39.1 23.5 38.6 4.11 4.43 73688 60822 2.96 2.8 Control (Unlevelled) 287 289 115 37.4 21.2 37.6 3.68 4.14 65416 53556 2.92 2.53 CD(P=0.05) 14.2 16.0 6.5 3.8 1.4 3.1 0.26 0.22 - - Tomar et al (2020), Madhya Pradesh Economic and yield Advantages of VRA of Tillage

12. Area under the disease D isease severity (%) Study conducted on apple scab, peach brown rot, and phomopsis of blueberry treated with conventional constant-rate (Con) and intelligent variable-rate (Int) applications. Chen et al., 2021 12 Advantages of VRT in Disease Management C omparison between C onventional (Con) and I ntelligent (Int) spray of fungicides for D isease severity (%) and Area under the disease

13. Mean deposit densities (number of deposit stains per unit area) Mean area coverage rate (spray coverage divided by spray deposits) 13 Advantages of VRT in Disease Management Salcedo et al , 2020 USA, ohio C omparison between Laser pulse width modulation, manual pulse width modulation and disabled pulse width modulation

14. 14 Higher Economic Returns

15. 15 Economics and Yield Advantage of GIS based fertilization for rice, potato and sesame Treatment Rice Potato Sesame Yield, t/ha Economics, ₹ Yield, t/ha Economic, ₹ Yield, t/ha Economics ₹ Grain Straw Net Return Return per ₹ invested Tuber Net Return Return per ₹ invested Seed Stick Net Return Return per ₹ invested Farmer’s Practice 4.2 4.6 20,592 1.90 28.7 38,210 1.50 0.8 3.0 3,928 1.22 State Rec. 4.4 5.0 21,544 1.91 22.5 20,962 1.30 1.2 3.9 8,278 1.51 Soil test based 4.7 6.0 25,6 14 2.05 28.3 41,556 1.58 1.4 4.2 11,267 1.66 GIS (100m grid) 4.7 6.0 24,760 2.02 27.6 39, 128 1.55 1.4 4.1 11,457 1.68 CD at 5% 0.26 0.32 - - 6.4 - - 0.3 0.4 - - * Economic comparisons considered all fixed and variable costs including fertilizers (urea= Rs.6/kg, SSP = Rs.6/kg, KCI = Rs. 6/kg) and revenues from rice grain (Rs.9/kg) and straw (Rs. 1.2/kg), potato tubers (Rs. 4/kg), and sesame seed (Rs.20/kg) and sticks (Rs. 100/t). Iftikar et al (2010),West Bengal

16. 16 Effect of site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) on wheat productivity (t/ha) and economic return (INR/ha) at seven locations in India Site Farmer practice(t/ha) State recommendation(t/ha) SSNM(t/ha) Increase over SR,% (INR/ha) Increase over FP. % (INR/ha) Modipuram 4.77 4.90 6.43 31.0 46.5 Kanpur 4.72 5.45 6.00 10.1 27.1 Ludhiana 5.45 6.28 6.55 4.3 20. 1 Sabour 3.92 4.97 5.82 17.1 48.7 Pantnagar 3.87 5.10 6.39 25.3 66.0 Palampur 2.64 3.76 3.87 3.0 46.5 Singh and Bansal (2010) Economic Advantage of SSNM

17. English et al., 2009 USA 17 Effects of VRT N-restriction on economic returns in comparison to URAT Economic Advantage of VRT with N Restriction

18. 18 Environmental protection

19. Green house gas mitigation in rice-wheat system with leaf colour chart LCC based urea application can reduce GWP of a rice–wheat system by 10.5% Bhatia et al., 2012 19

20. Saving of pesticides and foliar fertilizers in VRT Chen et al., 2021 Ohio, USA 20 Comparison between conventional (Con) and intelligent (Int) spray

21. 21 Savings of 25% irrigation water and a yield increase of 2.8% in soybean using VRI as compared to URI was reported by Sui and yan (2017). By irrigation simulations using VRI management, water savings from 9% to 29% were reported by Hedley et al . (2009). Dennis et al. (2010) reported seasonal water savings from 0.33 to 1.0 ML/ha with VRT. Less ground water pollution Sigua et al . (2017) demonstrated that a VRI system for corn resulted in lower concentrations of water nitrate and phosphate leached from the plots that were delineated by soil texture. Water saving through VRT approach in developed countries.

22. DEVELOPED NATIONS INDIA Accurate application of inputs and increasing input efficiency Fuel saving + labour saving +Agricultural input saving Improves soil conditions + Improving operator conditions A tool to combat climate change Water saving Focus is to achieve quality yield through VRT (DEFRA, 2013) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Maximum production is achieved with minimum available inputs. Overall fertilizer consumption rate of India is small (84.3 kg/ha of arable land) in comparison to other countries (like China 266.4 kg/ha of arable land). Fuel saving +Agricultural input saving Improves soil conditions Focus is to achieve higher quantity of Yield through VRT Keskin et al. (2017) Pros In Developed countries and India 22

23. 23 Disadvantages of VRT

24. 24 Complex Technology MAP base d VRT :- Building prescription maps for decision support is tedious and time consuming. T ools for the fusion of information from several GIS layers to form management zones are not straightforward (Moral et al ., 2010; Gili et al ., 2017). Dynamic prescription maps and MZs are necessary because various factors vary spatially, and temporally throughout the season ( Longchamps et al., 2015). G reater level of management required (Stone et al., 2016). Sensor based VRT :- Requires several working components More on field working sensitive technology that is more prone to damage ( Types of sensors, fr equency of sensors) Adaptation of existing machinery to VRT

25. 25 Not for all size of farms Countries with bigger farms (US, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina) tend to adopt in a bigger margin. The US is the only leading developed country in the adoption of VRT. 80% of the grain growers use automatic guidance in Australia ( Leonard, 2014). 98% of farmers surveyed, were using GPS guidance in western Canada ( Steele 2017). In general, farmer having at least a few hundred hectares are most likely to adopt high cost new technologies. ( Keskin 2013; Keskin & Sekerli , 2016). Farmers with fields larger than 300 ha tend to be the first to invest in new technologies. (Fountas et al. 2005) A farm of less than 100 ha were hesitatnt on the adoption of VRT in Germany. ( Paustian and Theuvsen 2016) Majority of the farmers (56.4%) using tractor auto guidance in the Adana province of Turkey had a field size of >100 ha. ( Keskin et al . 2017)

26. 26 High initial capital investment The major issues compared with conventional systems are greater capital costs (Evans et al ., 2013) GIS, GPS, GNSS, Satellites and Drones are some high capital investment Types of sensors, frequency of sensors modulate the economics greatly Sometimes, repair and maintenance of the technology takes the toll Lack of technical awareness and Research L imited comprehensive technical support from the agro industry (Martin et al., 2015). Lack of technical guidance from government institutes

27. 27 Cons of VRT in India as compared to developed countries The problem of land fragmentation :- small field size, scattered land holdings More than 58 percent of operational holdings in the country have size less than 1 ha. Only in the states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat more than 20 % of agricultural lands have operational holding size of more than four hectare. (Pinaki Mondal et al, 2011) Poor economic condition of general Indian farmer. High initial cost of machinery Maintenance and running cost ( Sushil Sharma et al., PAU, 2014) Lack of highly sophisticated technical help centers and specific software Lack of technical expertise, knowledge, technology and technical staff Poor network of providers for custom hiring purpose ( Chaudhary et al, 2020). Lack of government schemes for adoption of VRT

28. Cons in Developed countries and India DEVELOPED NATIONS INDIA High initial setup costs Not accurate enough, liable to errors Need of High accuracy sensing and data management tools No Adoption of sensor based VRT, due to complex technology of sensors. More popularity of auto guidance systems than VRT in last decade. (DEFRA, 2013) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs High initial cost, maintenance cost Not suitable for small size and variable plots Satisfaction with the available technology Need of less expensive technology which is suitable to local areas No technical knowledge No Adoption of Automatic tools of VRT, MAP based or sensor based VRT Lack of research and government's initiatives Keskin et al. (2017) 28

29. Market research report, 2017 Status quo of Asia pacific in VRT Market 29

30. What needs to be done ? D evelopment of VRT according to needs of small and marginal farmers - 'Virtual land consolidation ' while keeping ownership structure intact Individual farms will be treated as if they were management zones within a field and that some centralized entity will provide information to the individual farmers on a co-operative basis (Plant, 2001) C ustom hiring of costly tools of VRT D evelopment of VRT suiting the local conditions Creation of multidisciplinary teams involving agricultural scientists in various fields, engineers, manufacturers and economists to study the overall scope of variable rate technologies. Formation of farmer’s co-operatives since many of the variable rate technology tools are costly (GIS, GPS, RS, etc.) Government control over indiscriminate farm inputs would induce the farmer to go for alternative approach. Pilot study should be conducted on farmer’s field to show the results of VRT implementation. ( Sushil Sharma, PAU, 2014) 30

31. The high cost positioning systems can be replaced by 'dead reckoning system’ for small fields. (Monson, 1997). Integrating farmer knowledge, precision agriculture tools, and crop simulation modelling to evaluate management options for poor-performing patches in cropping fields. A nationwide Agricultural Advanced Technology (AAT) program should be started for next 10 years. The scope of application of already developed Information Technology and satellite-based technology in the agricultural field should be studied for local areas. Trial farm projects for VRT should be started region wise. (Mondal and Basu , 2009; Bhangale and Mondal, 2011; Tewari and Mondal, 2011). 200 Agricultural Advanced Technology Park (AATP) should be developed in each region throughout the country (as an example, China already developed 153 no of such parks ( Maohua , 2001 )). These AATP can work as as incubator of mature technology already developed in developed countries. Attitudes of confidence toward using the precision agriculture technologies, perceptions of net benefit, farm size and farmer educational levels positively influence the intention of farmers to adopt precision agriculture technologies (Adrian et al., 2005). 31 Suggestions from Pinaki Mondal Report, 2011

32. 32 Conclusion Application of VRT reduces overall amount of inputs used improves crop yields through optimal use of inputs. Hence in future scope of VRT in agriculture could be immense if land consolidation practices get a good rhythm in India (Chaudhary et al. 2020). Beside this some local interventions needs to be applied considering the local conditions to promote and use the VRT in an efficient and economic manner. Therefore VRT is not only suitable for developed countries but also for India, only if applied properly and can work as a tool to destroy the distance between developed world and India.

33. Thank you 33