Microclimate analysis increases food yield

[Higgs Boson]

True, most of us are home gardeners rather than farmers, but I found this article fascinating for its innovative approach to analyzing "microclimates" rather than large acreages, with potential for helping to solve the world's looming food shortages.

Here's the first few paragraphs from the report via Reuters. The full article can be found at:

"++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- Scientists in Israel have developed a way of using satellite images to help farmers detect small-scale changes in climate and improve their harvests, a method that could bolster food supplies for an increasingly hungry world population.

Rather than analyze the weather and topography of large swathes of land, the new system divides fields into smaller microclimates that guide farmers on the best way to work each individual plot.

It tells them when it is best to plant seeds, when to spray pesticides and even which crop is most suitable for each square-kilometer field, said Uri Dayan, a climatologist from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

HB

[Sean Straw]

[snip]

What part of "square kilometer" field sounds like anything other than a fairly large acreage (not by some US agri-business farms of course).

Which crop is most suitable will also depend on soil makeup and drainage - neither of which will be revealed by sat imagry.

Pesticide application is probably chiefly controlled by temperature and rainfall (want to interrupt the breeding cycle of the pests) - I could see some use there, but is the farmer supposed to wait, with baited breath, for the sat data to say "spray now!" ?

[Higgs Boson]

Before commenting, I need to know whether you read the whole article or just the opening paragraphs that I quoted.

TIA

HB