Information tech down on the farm

One of my favorite bloggers, Big Gav (an Australian engineer whose site covers energy production and environmental issues), today has a post from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology Review site about Michigan apple growers using wireless networks to access weather data and how the process leads to more efficient use of fertilizer, pesticides and other inputs:

"For apple growers like Abby Jacobson, making or losing money depends as much on what they don't do as what they do. So when data from Michigan State University's high-tech weather monitoring network helped her decide to skip four costly chemical sprayings this spring, she considered it an unqualified success.
..."

"... Technicians installed the station in March in an open field near fruit trees at the 188-acre orchard near Romeo. The station checks wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity, precipitation, solar radiation, leaf wetness, and soil moisture and temperature at two depths. A modem links the station -- one of 57 statewide -- to Verizon Wireless' broadband wireless network, which feeds the data every five minutes to Michigan State's Enviro-weather computer programs. They, in turn, crunch the numbers and give farmers up-to-the-minute advice on when to plant; apply fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides; irrigate and harvest their crops. The information is instantly available free to farmers by logging in to Enviro-weather's Web site."

The Web's use as a promotional tool (for business and/or self) deservedly gets much attention and praise. But its real dividends for business (and society as a whole) may come from enabling smarter use of increasingly expensive production inputs and other process efficiencies.