Mapping potential of digitized aerial photographs and space images for site-specific crop management

In site-specific crop management, treatments (e.g., fertilizers and herbicides) are applied precisely where they are needed. Global positioning system receivers allow accurate navigation of field implements and creation of crop yield maps. Remote sensing products help producers explain the wide range of yields shown on these maps and become the basis for digitized field management maps. Previous sources of remote sensing products for agriculture did not provide services that generated a sustained demand by crop producers, often because data were not delivered quickly enough. Public Access Resource Centers could provide a nearly uninterrupted electronic flow of data from NASA's MODIS and other sensors that could help producers and their advisors monitor crop conditions. This early warning/opportunity system would provide a low-cost way to discover conditions that merit examination on the ground. High-spatial-resolution digital aerial photographs or data from new commercial satellite companies would provide the basis for site-specific treatments. These detailed data are too expensive to acquire often and must be timed so as to represent differences in water supply characteristics and crop yield potentials. Remote sensing products must be linked to specific prescriptions that crop producers use to control operations and improve outcomes.