These new procedures enable growers to improve crop production efficiency and reduce environmental pollution by adjusting the amounts of seed, fertilizer, and pesticide applied to meet the specific needs of discrete areas of a field. To develop a site-specific management plan, though, farmers need georeferenced information about the physical properties of their soil, as well as plant production and crop yield data. Two of the most common methods for developing these zones are intensive grid soil sampling and mechanical yield monitoring. Although soil samples can significantly contribute to a grower's understanding of the dynamics at work in a field, the process of obtaining the samples is time-consuming, and analyzing the specimens is expensive. Also, the more variation that exists within a field, the more complex the spatial modeling becomes.
Growers often turn to combine yield monitors to map yield variations.
But, yield maps can be produced only after harvest, when it is too late to address any problems with the crop. With so much financial success resting on each season's yield, growers need information while they can still act upon it. That's where remote sensing may be able to help. The quality of these conditions is then reflected in the health of the canopy. Growers and researchers, therefore, have used images obtained from satellite systems to monitor canopy status, as well as field conditions and crop yield for many years.