Preface
The 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture
It is a great pleasure to welcome all the presenters, exhibitors, sponsors andparticipants to the 10th International conference on Precision Agriculture (ICPA) inDenver, Colorado. This year’s international conference is a landmark event in the historyof ICPA. We are completing 20 years of existence and are morphing into a scientific andprofessional international society called International Society of Precision Agriculture(ISPA). Let’s take a quick look into the history of ICPA.
The ICPA started as a small workshop in the early 1990s. The first conference(rather workshop) was held from April 14 to 16th at the Sheraton Airport Inn inMinneapolis, MN. It was called “Soil Specific Crop Management: A workshop on
Research and Development Issues”. There were a total of 43 presentations and 173
participants from six countries at the workshop (Table 1). It was clear that there was astrong interest in the new (at that time) discipline of Precision Agriculture. Under theleadership of Dr. Peirre Robert, who was the ICPA chairperson from 1992 to 2000, theconference grew to 203 presentations and 807 participants representing 19 countries by1998. That was the highest number of participants ICPA has witnessed to date. Such anunprecedented increase in participants was a direct reflection of a new track that ICPA
introduced in 1998 called “Precision A to Z for Practitioners”. Interestingly, a majority(over 50%) of the participants in the 1998 conference were practitioners, crop advisors,consultants, agents, ag retailers, etc.
In the year 2000, the number of presentations saw an increase to 233 papers,
highest in the history of the ICPA. However the number of participants observed a 12%
drop to about 700 (Table 1).
Table 1. Historical snapshot of International Conference on Precision Agriculture
ICPAYear

Chairperson

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th

1992
1994
1996
1998
2000*
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010

Dr. Pierre C. Robert
Dr. Pierre C. Robert
Dr. Pierre C. Robert
Dr. Pierre C. Robert
Dr. Pierre C. Robert
Dr. David Mulla
Dr. David Mulla
Dr. David Mulla
Dr. Rajiv Khosla
Dr. Rajiv KhoslaPresentations

Participants

4372
147
203
233
199
176
136
231258173* Precision A to Z Track for Practitioners was introduced this year** At the time of publishing the CD-Rom Proceedings
NA: not available

1347
570
807714523455300488>400Countries
681227182525NA4342**

With the sudden passage of Dr. Peirre Robert, the ICPA responsibilities weredirected upon Dr. David Mulla, who was the ICPA Chairperson from 2002 to 2006. The
loss of Dr. Pierre Robert took a toll on the conference. The ICPA went into a downward
trajectory till 2006, the 8th ICPA, when there were only 136 presentations and about 300
participants. Prior to 2008, the conference was hosted by the University of Minnesota. It
was time for a change, change of location, leadership, organizing committee,programming and more.
After the culmination of the 8th ICPA in Minnesota, ICPA embarked upon a newjourney. I was appointed as the 3rd Chairperson of the ICPA and I accepted the task withgreat respect. It was an opportunity to rejuvenate the conference and to implement
creative changes. With the input and advice from the national NCERA-180 Precision
Agriculture group in the USA and several members of the international precision
agricultural community, I implemented several changes. They were:(i)(ii)(iii)
(iv)
(v)

(vi)

Location of the conference was changed to Denver, Colorado.
An event organizing company was hired to assist with the conference
logistics.
P.C. Robert Precision Agriculture Senior and Young Scientists Awards wereinstituted.
Precision Agriculture Outstanding Graduate student awards for 10 graduate
students were instituted.
Symposia style, theme based “Thematic Sessions” were initiated in theconference. Thematic sessions such as “Precision Conservation” and several
others provided an opportunity and platform to invite scientists andprofessionals who other wise may not attend the conference.
The 2010 conference will host seven thematic sessions. Among the seventhematic sessions, Precision Carbon Management, and Precision Livestock
Management are being organized for the first time in the history of ICPA.
Thematic sessions have broadened the scope of the conference and haveattracted more non-traditional scientists/professionals and other participants tothe conference.

The 9th ICPA conference saw an increase in the number of presentations to 231, a level
similar to the year 2000. The number of registrants and countries represented increased
significantly compared to the 8th ICPA (Table 1).
The 10th ICPA conference attracted more than 300 paper submissions. At the timeof publishing the CD-Rom proceedings, there were 258 confirmed presentations withover 400 participants representing over 40 countries from around the world. This is thehighest number of papers ever presented in the history of the ICPA. It is unfortunate thata significant number of our foreign delegates had to withdraw their papers due to delay invisa processing in their respective countries.

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International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA)
After assuming the position of the ICPA Chairperson in 2006, I had an
opportunity to visit several countries (Canada, China, Greece, Germany, India, Mexico,Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and others) as a part of my sabbatical leave from Colorado
State University, and also in response to the invitations from international colleagues forpotential research collaborations. In my travels and via personal interaction withinternational colleagues, I was repeatedly asked about Precision Agriculture and how it
could be relevant for lesser developed countries. I experienced inquisitiveness and astrong desire to learn about Precision Agriculture among the international colleagues. I
realized that we do not have a repository or an entity or a location from where one canacquire information about various aspects of precision agriculture from around the world.
This thought process in my mind gave birth to an idea of creating an “InternationalSociety of Precision Agriculture” (ISPA). A society that will bridge the information gap
among the members around the world.
In 2008, at the 9th ICPA conference, I shared the idea of organizing the ISPA withsome my colleagues plus we asked the entire audience via conference evaluationquestionnaire regarding their interest in an ISPA. There was an overwhelming response
in support for creation the new society, “International Society of Precision
Agriculture”. In a formal meeting with scientists and colleagues representing sixcountries (Chili, Japan, India, Israel, Italy, and the USA) we together signed a“declaration of intent” for the creation of ISPA (See attached). I was appointed as theInterim Chairperson of the ISPA working group and was entrusted with the responsibilityof furthering the establishment of the ISPA.
In the last two years, I have reached out to many of you with the intent to engage
and seek your input for the creation of the ISPA. I also met several times with Springer©
to institute a partnership with them and designate the International Journal of Precision
Agriculture as the ISPA journal.
I am pleased to share with you that; (i) ISPA was officially registered as a society
in June of 2010, (ii) Springer©, agreed to designate the Journal of Precision Agriculture
as the society’s journal, (iii) ISPA domain name has been purchased aswww.internationalsocietyofprecisionagriculture.org, (iv) a preliminary web-page has
been created, and (v) Dr. Dwayne Westfall, Professor, Colorado State University,
assumed the responsibility of the Chair of the Nomination Committee to accept thenominations, conduct the officer elections, and establish the first set of ISPA boardmembers consisting of the ISPA President, President Elect, Secretary and Treasurer.
Officer elections will be conducted at the 10th ICPA conference and they will be installedat the first business meeting of the International Society of Precision Agriculture in
Denver on July 21st, 2010.
This is an exciting time for the international precision agricultural community. I
am optimistic that ISPA will connect members from near and far and the society will play3

a vital role and have an indelible impact in meeting the grand challenges of our times,(i.e.) the environment, energy, global food security and the healthcare.
I look forward to seeing you at the 10th International Conference on Precision
Agriculture and at the first business meeting of the International Society of Precision
Agriculture.
Rajiv Khosla
Chairperson of the 10 International Conference on Precision Agriculture
Professor of Precision Agriculture, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
thJuly 201045