Abstract
This is a timely study of precision agriculture as both data management (mapping) and field production technologies for agricultural production are changing rapidly. We compare the performance of producers who adopt precision agriculture tools versus those that do not. We estimate both their own frontier performance and a metafrontier that enables the research to compare the efficiency of producers across technologies. To make these comparisons we pre-processed the data with a matching procedure in order to have a sample of producers of equal size for each category who faced similar conditions. In the metafrontier results we find that GPS yield maps, guidance auto-steering precision agriculture technologies, and managerial ability save input costs and increase farm production efficiency which has environmental benefits. Maps created from soils or aerial data and input applications using VRT did not produce useable results.
Thanks to Chris O’Donnell, Spiro Stefanou, and our branch chief, Jim MacDonald, and attendants to the North American Productivity Workshop X at the University of Miami for their valuable feedback. The article uses confidential U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey. The findings and conclusions in this preliminary paper have not been formally disseminated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy. This research was supported by the intramural research program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
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Notes
- 1.
This survey method means that each sample farm represents multiple farms from the same state and size class, and that the stratum weights have to be adjusted for nonresponse. Samples are expanded to population estimates with sample weights.
- 2.
O’Donnell’s (2018, personal communication), suggestion.
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Mosheim, R., Schimmelpfennig, D. (2021). Nutrient Use and Precision Agriculture in Corn Production in the USA. In: Parmeter, C.F., Sickles, R.C. (eds) Advances in Efficiency and Productivity Analysis. NAPW 2018. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47106-4_15
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