Precision agriculture practices from planting to postharvest: scopes, opportunities, and challenges of innovation in developing countries

Precision agriculture (PA) is a modern practice that involves observing, measuring, and responding to intra- and inter-field crop variability. It is also called satellite farming with a site-specific crop management concept that makes the production process more efficient considering environmental conservation. Despite the advancement of technology and innovation, PA could not make the pace in developing countries, especially in smallholder farming. Limited investment, scalable technology for small farms, slow rate of technological diffusion among the farmers, lack of favorable policy are the challenges. Despite the challenges, broad scopes and opportunities are paving the way to adopt precision agricultural innovation. Small drones/unmanned aerial vehicles, small-scale farm mechanization, availability of Internet of things, tiny sensors, mobile phone apps, service provider and start-up, and benefits of data science are the hope for PA in developing countries. The strength of PA could play an essential role in every step of crop production, including land preparation, crop management, varietal development, harvest, and even postharvest. Adopting appropriate and innovative PA technology could ensure sustainable crop production in smallholder farms of developing countries.