Work-in-Progress: Contemporary Barriers Faced by Precision Agriculture, New Paradigms and Proposals for Future Advance

Abstract

Heightening concerns are surrounding world food capacity, especially in the context of modern demands in large-scale human activities. Precision agriculture has a prime role in optimizing the management of crops, but is currently blocked by a series of technical and economical obstacles. This paper endeavors to summarize and critically analyze the state-of-the-art in precision agriculture, while at the same time highlighting the current limitations and unknowns the research community is facing. It also contains suggestions for the best development directions for the future. The findings conclude that genuine progress will be undoubtedly based on large-scale multi-disciplinary research endeavors rather than individual effort, standardization, and development of agriculture-specific methods and equipment, as opposed to reusing existing technology. The most potent and promising approaches are identified and original contribution in the form of novel ideas is presented.