The Production Economics of Precision Farming and Its Possible Application for Grain Corn in Turkey

In this study, it was aimed that whether the application of precision farming in different field scala and farm input level is economical or not in grain corn production in ukurova region by using partial budgetting method for examining the variable costs in the period of the years between 2002-2008. The revenue obtained from yield and the minimum saving from fertilizer, pesticide and seeds were compared with precision farming initial costs in order to cover the investment together with economical field sizes. It was ascertained that investment conditions of precision farming have changed and investment has become more attractive in some years during this period. Depending on the variation of the input costs and exchange rate of Euro, input prices have increased and technology prices have decreased, the investment of precision farming have become attractive. Moreover, depending on the variability on field, sensitive analysis was made in + % 5, + % 10, + % 20, + % 50 variable intervals. Using combine systems for 100 ha field size, it was concluded that the costs of precision farming can be covered by 4,01% of yield increase and 12,02% of overall cost decrease in grain corn production in ukurova in 2008.