Precision Agriculture (PA), Smart Agriculture (SA) and Digital Agriculture (DA) are being widely perceived as the 'holy trinity' of modern agriculture. Nevertheless, these terms have been used interchangeably, somewhat suggesting that their deployments are mutually exclusive. This keynote attempts to describe the salient differences among PA, SA and DA from an operational perspective. Some examples of PA application for better nutrient management and pest/disease assessment will be covered. In addition, the use of real time approaches and data processing techniques for better agronomic management will be discussed. This keynote is aimed at demonstrating the interdependence of PA, SA and DA as opposed to looking at them individually.
Assoc Prof Dr Siva K Balasundram currently heads the Department of Agriculture Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He also serves as Country Representative of the International Society of Precision Agriculture and Executive Committee Chairman of the Asian Conference on Precision Agriculture.
Dr Balasundram has authored a total of 85 journal articles, 45 proceeding papers, 7 book chapters and 5 articles in professional magazines. He currently registers a Google Scholar h-index of 24. Additionally, he has 2 copyrights and 1 patent, and has also led 15 consultancies and built several industry linkages as a scientific advisor/resource person.
Dr Balasundram specializes in Precision Agriculture and has expanded his research interests into Smart Agriculture and Digital Agriculture.