1ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF PRECISION FARMING: A GERMAN VIEW- POINT

At the current time precision agriculture is a very extensively discussed topic both in agricultural science and the farming community. One of the most contro-versial points is the question of the profitability of these new technical possibili-ties. This study gives a short overview of experiments in Germany according to precision agriculture and carries out an economic assessment, which differentiates between sensor systems and mapping systems. By the sensor (or online)-systems the nitrogen fertilization with the N-sensor has reached a already remarkable ex-tent in Germany. But a significant difference is hard to find as regards the agro-nomic and economic effects. Solutions for a site-specific pest control manage-ment are still missing, although they are considered to have a high potential for economic profitability. By the mapping systems, a comparison of the costs for essential site-specific measures between farm-owned and contracted services is given. The comparison shows, that it is recommended to use contracted-services for starting precision agriculture. Furthermore, site-specific fertilization experi-ments of nitrogen and basic nutrients are investigated, but also using the mapping approach, an economically significant benefit cannot be found. In conclusion, similar to other studies, the author anticipates that precision agriculture improves productivity and product quality, but there will be no significant impact on farm-ers ' income