The role of information technology-based crop management cycle in the development of advanced agriculture

In the present century, the development of information technology (IT) is bringing another revolution to achieve the maximum increase in crop production and efficiency of using agricultural inputs. The greatest role of IT in advanced agriculture (precision, smart and digital) is through the IT-based crop management cycle. So, this paper aims to introduce the components of IT-based crop management cycle and their role in advanced agriculture. IT-based crop management cycle consists of five main components including (1) crop, (2) remote sensing platforms supporting sensors such as satellites, drones and proximal equipment (3) data, (4) decision-making through algorithms such as artificial intelligence and (5) the actuation through variable rate technology. The main purpose of this cycle is to obtain accurate information from every pixels of a farm for smart decision making. This cycle enables the collection of objective data for the implementation of advanced agriculture. In fact, advanced agriculture is based on the principle of monitoring and preparing maps and spatio-temporal information, and this principle arises from the existence of heterogeneity in the field. The role of IT-based crop management cycle components is identifying these heterogeneities (differences in land slope, altitude, soil nutrients, pests and weeds, moisture, salinity (EC), pH, organic matter or even crop yield) for helping to perform precision and smart field management in different parts of the production field