Agro Intelligence Research Press Agro Intelligence Research Press

Search

Search results:
Economic and Agronomic Effects of Precision Seeding and Laser Land Leveling on Winter Wheat Production in Central China
China’s rapid socioeconomic transformation, marked by urbanization and land-use shifts, is creating novel contexts for the implementation of precision agriculture (PA). Two PA approaches were tested in a single-year experiment to evaluate their economic returns: precision seeding applied alone and precision seeding paired with land leveling. Although the trial produced favorable results, it could not, by itself, confirm longer-term advantages. The outlay for land leveling is concentrated in a single year, whereas its benefits may persist for multiple years. Therefore, if this PA practice yields benefits that extend into future seasons, the economic appraisal would improperly concentrate all expenditures in a single year of returns. In other words, the benefit-cost ratio would be underestimated. To determine whether benefits carried forward, we employed NDVI and GUI as proxy measures for gains in subsequent years. From the single-year experiment, our results demonstrated that: (1) Winter wheat output climbed by 23.2% when precision seeding and laser leveling were jointly applied. (2) Used in isolation or combination, the technologies markedly lowered soil ammonium nitrogen levels at the 60 cm depth; (3) The treatment benefit/cost ratios outperformed the baseline by roughly 10%, equating to an increase of several hundred US dollars per hectare. NDVI analysis indicated that the influence of laser land leveling persisted for up to 2 years. Factoring in the multi-year effect, the benefit/cost ratio of PSLL climbs to 23.5% and 22.9%, depending on whether laser land leveling subsidies are included. Elucidating the economic benefits of PA technology adoption should facilitate its broader adoption across the region.
Journal of Intelligent Agriculture and Food Systems
Original Research | Open access | 15 March 2025 | Article: 128