Geo Mapping, Satellite and Geographic Information Systems are by no means a new technology but they are becoming a staple in American Agriculture. Agweb, a source for news on American Agriculture, has recently launched three interactive planting maps to demonstrate how planting is progressing across the U.S. this spring season. The website reports:
“Using USDA’s weekly Crop Production reports, the Planting Maps are updated each Monday, showing the increased planting progress for corn, soybeans and spring wheat. Similar to AgWeb’s Harvest Maps, the Planting Maps show, by color, the percentage planted in a given state.”
Farmer’s can also input their own crop reports to use the maps for their acreage. Clearly this technology is useful to the agri-sector especially with respect to the various landscapes of Caribbean islands which range from low lying and flat lands to elevated, mountainous and high terrain.
At the University of the West Indies there are a few students that are studying this area of expertise in the field of Agriculture, so there is room for lots of field application. If the technology is out there shouldn’t it be used?! The disadvantage here is that it may be still expensive to acquire this tech. Will the benefit outweigh the cost?
(Source of Information: http://www.agrimarketing.com/s/74369)
For an interesting read on GIS, GPS, and Web 2.0 (Social media) technology see this presentation http://www.slideshare.net/mra1124/geo-mapping
