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Picture provided by Rob Bramley CSIRO

Precision Agriculture Tools (PAT)

Precision Agriculture Tools (PAT) is a suite of data analysis tools for the processing and analysis of Precision Agriculture (PA) data. It includes tools for mapping 'on-the-go sensor' data such as from yield monitors or high resolution soil sensors, delineating management zones, and for the analysis of spatially distributed experiments. PAT is available as a plugin for Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS).
$0.00 excl tax

Precision Agriculture Tools (PAT) provides a suite of Precision Agriculture (PA) data analysis tools for growers, consultants and researchers as a free ‘plugin’ to QGIS, a free and open source GIS software package. It uses the CSIRO developed pyPrecAg python module.

PAT aims to provide easy-to-use interfaces to complex PA analysis techniques developed by researchers over the decades. The core PAT tool set includes the well established workflow for processing high spatial density ‘on-the-go’ sensor data (ref to image) such as from yield monitors or high resolution soil surveys.  Other tools are available to enable image analysis, delineation of management zones and the mapping of lower spatial density data that might be derived from hand sampling (e.g. disease incidence, measures of crop biomass, etc).

Importantly, PAT includes tools for the analysis of on-farm experiments using spatially distributed designs, whether these are simple strips or more complex ‘whole-of-block’ trials. Such trials can provide important input to the optimisation of farm management decisions.

To see the full list of available tools please visit the PAT online user manual.

Over time, more tools and ‘how-to’ instructions will be added to expand the functionality and usefulness for both practical and research purposes.

Image: The basic map production workflow used in PAT and some of the existing tools available for processing high density on-the-go data (Ratcliff et al. 2019).  

How to access PAT:

PAT plugin for QGIS is available from the QGIS plugin manager.

  1. Download QGIS from https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html.
  2. Install QGIS software onto your computer using the default settings.
  3. Start QGIS and from the plugin menu click Manage and install plugins
  4. Search for and install PAT - Precision Agriculture Tools.
  5. Follow the install instructions and restart QGIS if required.

For detailed installation instructions read chapter 1 of the PAT User Manual

Links:

Citation: Ratcliff, Christina; Gobbett, David; Bramley, Rob (2019): PAT - Precision Agriculture Tools. CSIRO. Software Collection. https://doi.org/10.25919/5d23f9fb58722