Bridging the gap between conservation delivery and economics with precision agriculture

Abstract

Agricultural landscapes are important for natural resource conservation, but present numerous obstacles associated with intensive agricultural production. Chief among these challenges is the competing economics outcomes of conservation and crop production. Understanding these outcomes requires quantifying economics of crop production and conservation enrollment. Precision agriculture technology provides a mechanism to address these needs by using advanced technology to quantify spatially explicit profitability in agricultural fields. Precision agriculture's application to conservation planning represents a growing field of research. I present a brief overview of precision agriculture technology and its application in natural resource conservation. I discuss the role precision agriculture can play in United States conservation policy, highlight hindrances to adopting this technology, and provide recommendations for future application. I outline a new approach of targeted conservation delivery that focuses on return on investment to agricultural producers and discuss the role of precision agriculture in this approach. Increased adoption and application of this technology in natural resource conservation will require substantial investment from state wildlife agencies, nongovernmental organizations, farm managers, rural banks, and agricultural companies. Precision agriculture represents the next paradigm shift in natural resource conservation where spatially explicit conservation decisions are made that optimize conservation and profitability to produce environmentally resilient, multifunctional agricultural landscapes.

Snow and land use alter pheasant survival in South Dakota

“…Mitigating modern agricultural practices to conserve emergent wetlands and increasing perennial cover is imperative to improving overwinter female pheasant survival. Successful widespread conservation of native perennial vegetation and emergent wetlands has been implemented as Farm Bill policy (McConnell 2019), particularly through the modern CRP legislation (Food Security Act of 1985). With general CRP enrollment limitations failing to meet demands in South Dakota (St. Pierre 2019), large‐scale conservation efforts to improve winter pheasant habitat are limited.…”

“…With general CRP enrollment limitations failing to meet demands in South Dakota (St. Pierre 2019), large‐scale conservation efforts to improve winter pheasant habitat are limited. Innovative conservation opportunities outside of CRP including precision agriculture or working lands conservation programs may supplement pheasant conservation efforts to increase perennial cover on the landscape by retiring agriculturally active landscapes into perennial cover (McConnell 2019).…”

A state assessment of private lands wildlife conservation in the United States

“…The missing ingredient is the next inspirational conservation leader(s), who could take us a step closer toward improving the balance of the human experience and natural resource sustainability. Visionary leaders must inspire a national environmental awareness coupled with sustainable market‐driven solutions for private lands (Echols et al , Keyser et al , McConnell ). Our work must be more strategic and adaptive (Burger et al , Riley et al ) and must better accountant for society's values and desires (Golden et al , Gamborg et al ).…”

Financial Analysis of Converting Rural Lawns to Pollinator Habitat in the Corn Belt

“…Meaningful improvements in a broad suite of ecosystem goods and services, including water quality, soil health, and wildlife habitat, come from increases in diversity of native plants in existing or new natural areas in rural landscapes (Fornara and Tilman 2008;Pérez-Suárez et al 2014;Schulte et al 2017). In those landscapes, policy makers and conservationists find promise for progress in areas where existing land use practices are mismatched with landowner goals for profitability or cost management (Muth 2014;McConnell and Burger 2016;McConnell 2019). Here, we explore one such area: managed turfgrass monocultures (hereafter lawns).…”