LAAS5416

Precision Agriculture is an integrated information- and technology-based modern agricultural management system, with the intent to manage the spatial and temporal variability associated with all important aspects of agricultural production to achieve optimum yield, quality, efficiency and profitability, protection of the environment and sustainable development. It is an important direction of future agriculture.

The focus of this course is on the concept, principles and technologies of precision agriculture and their applications in nutrient resource management. The specific topics include concept and development of precision agriculture and nutrient management, key supporting technologies, soil spatial variability and analysis, yield data analysis, remote sensing-based precision nutrient management, management zone delineation and application, crop growth modeling, combining crop growth modeling and remote sensing for precision nutrient management, and the challenges and future directions of precision agriculture and nutrient management.

Precision agriculture and nutrient management is data intensive and the students will also learn basic agro-informatics through hands-on experiences and computer exercises. This course will involve background knowledge and technologies from multi-disciplines, which will facilitate multi-disciplinary integration and innovation. The class will include both lectures and activities such as case studies, group discussion and presentation, problem-solving, and hands-on exercises.

This course is intended for graduate students and upper-level undergraduate students whose major is related to agriculture, environmental science and sustainability.

This course is equivalent to LAAS 5480 (001) in Fall of 2018 only. This course was taught one semester as a topic course and is only equivalent to that particular topic and semester.