Precision Agriculture Technologies in Spices

Precision agriculture (PA) is an integrated crop management system that attempts to match the kind and number of inputs with the actual crop needs for small areas within a farm field. It emphasizes efficient management of resources through location-specific high-tech interventions such as fertigation, protected/greenhouse cultivation, soil and leaf nutrient-based nutrient/fertilizer management, high-density planting, soilless culture, etc. for a holistic management of decisions associated with agricultural production. It aims in low-input, high-efficiency, and sustainable agriculture using all modern tools available by bringing information technology (IT) and agricultural science together for improved economic and environmentally sustainable crop production. Any spatial and temporal variations in the input requirements are also taken into consideration by removing the source of variation, and all the abiotic and biotic stresses are minimized so that the crop productivity in terms of both quality and quantity is maximized. Geographically referenced information and the spatial analysis capabilities of geographical information system (GIS) are also likely to enable the precision farming. Even though the studies on application of such technologies are very limited in spice crops, to a limited extent, studies are made under greenhouse or polyhouse conditions for understanding the potentials of these advanced methods in spice cultivation. This chapter covers in brief some of the frontier approaches like site-specific nutrient management for spices to overcome the soil fertility hurdles, drip irrigation and fertigation models in different spices to enhance the use efficacy of the inputs like water and nutrients, studies on protected cultivation for maximizing the yield potential, and use of GIS and IT tools to empower the farmers and decision-makers for effective implementation of the technologies aiming to enhance productivity.