Frontiers and perspectives on research strategies in grassland technology

Abstract

Grassland scientists and farmers are increasingly faced with emerging new technologies and information systems that have been primarily developed in engineering sciences, in particular, precision agriculture, remote sensing, geographic information and biotechnology. Judgment upon whether the implementation of any of these technologies may be beneficial in economic and ecological respects is challenging, especially to those who have to make on-farm decisions. New technologies have been applied on grassland only partially and with some delay compared with arable land. However, as we will show here, there is scope for successful implementation of new technologies in various climatic regions and for a wide range of applications. The paper presents the most important recent developments of new technologies in agriculture that have scope for application in grasslands. It defines the relevant terms and processes, provides examples of successful implementation, and discusses future directions and research needs.