Introduction to Precision Agriculture
AOM2433 — Introduction to Precision Agriculture
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Course Description
AOM 2433 Introduction to Precision Agriculture "introduces students to the principles and technologies of precision agriculture, including GPS, GIS, UAVs, remote sensing, and variable rate technology (VRT), to enhance farm efficiency and sustainability. Through hands-on experience and real-world applications, students will learn to collect, analyze, and apply data-driven solutions for modern agricultural management" (statewide description).
Precision agriculture means managing a field as many small parts instead of one uniform block. It applies seed, fertilizer, water and chemicals where the data show they are needed, in the amounts needed. This is a new course: the statewide number and description are recent, and Florida's colleges added it as part of new agricultural technology programs.
⚠⚠ The same course is taught under two numbers
| College of Central Florida | Florida SouthWestern State College |
|---|
| Number | AOM 2433 (this page) | ⚠ AOM 2433C, the integrated lecture-and-lab form |
| Credits | 3 | 3 |
| Description | The statewide text | The statewide text, with Internet of Things (IoT) added to the technology list |
| Where | Ocala, in the Agribusiness Management program | ⚠ The Hendry/Glades Curtis Center, from Fall 2026, part of FSW's new agriculture course sequence in Hendry and Glades counties |
| Text | Zaman, Precision Agriculture: Evolution, Insights and Emerging Trends (Academic Press) | Not published |
⚠ The bare and C numbers are the same course packaged two ways. FSW's version builds the lab into the course. Both carry 3 credits, and the outcomes overlap almost completely. Take whichever your college offers.
⚠ The University of Florida teaches AOM 4434 Precision Agriculture at the upper division (statewide prerequisite: junior standing) and offers a Precision Agriculture minor. AOM 2433 is the lower-division introduction to it, not a substitute for it.
Learning Outcomes
Required Outcomes
- Define precision agriculture, outline its history, and explain its importance in modern farming.
- Explain GNSS/GPS positioning, its accuracy levels (including RTK correction), and its agricultural applications such as guidance and auto-steer.
- Apply GIS tools and soil-sampling methods to create site-specific management plans (FSW outcome).
- Explain remote sensing fundamentals for agriculture, including vegetation indices such as NDVI, from satellite, aircraft and drone platforms.
- Assess variable-rate technology (VRT) and automation options, issues and use cases, including precision irrigation.
- Measure and interpret yield data and yield maps, and appraise their benefits and limitations.
- Evaluate agricultural data systems: farm management software, data warehouses, cloud, IoT and AI.
- Apply precision-agriculture concepts to choose the right technologies and strategies for a given farming scenario, and justify the choice with a cost–benefit analysis.
Optional Outcomes
- Plan a drone mapping mission and process the imagery into a field map.
- Describe precision applications in livestock (monitoring and precision feeding) and in controlled-environment agriculture (CF's outline).
- Discuss barriers to adoption: cost, connectivity, data ownership and skills.
Major Topics
Required Topics
This list follows College of Central Florida's outline.
- Introduction: definition and history of precision agriculture
- Geospatial technologies: GPS, GIS, remote sensing
- Data collection: yield monitoring and mapping, soil sampling, drones (UAVs)
- Variable-rate technology and automation: site-specific management, precision irrigation, autonomous equipment and robotics
- Software and decision-making: farm management software, data-driven decisions, cloud and big data
- Economic and environmental benefits: cost–benefit analysis, resource conservation, reducing input waste
- Applications in row crops, specialty crops, livestock and greenhouses
- Emerging trends: AI and machine learning, Internet of Things, barriers to adoption
Optional Topics
- Florida applications: citrus grove mapping and tree-by-tree management, vegetable production, sugarcane, and pasture
- Data ownership and privacy in farm data
Resources & Tools
- Zaman, Precision Agriculture: Evolution, Insights and Emerging Trends (Academic Press), CF's text. Its author did much of his work on citrus.
- QGIS (free) or ArcGIS for mapping; Google Earth Engine for satellite imagery.
- Drone mapping software such as DroneDeploy or Pix4D, and a small mapping drone.
- UF/IFAS Extension publications on precision agriculture and on Florida crops.
- FAA material for the Part 107 remote pilot knowledge test (below).
Career Pathways
- Farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers (SOC 11-9013). This site's Agricultural Manager career path includes this course and notes that precision technology is what lets fewer, larger farms need fewer managers, which makes it a skill those managers are expected to have.
- Precision agriculture technicians (O*NET 19-4012.01), who collect and analyse field data and run guidance and VRT systems.
- Agricultural equipment operators (SOC 45-2091) on GPS-guided equipment.
- Drone service operators, agronomy and crop consultants, and precision specialists at equipment dealerships and input suppliers.
Special Information
Offering Notes
| Institution | Number and title | Credits | Note |
|---|
| College of Central Florida (CF) | AOM 2433 Introduction to Precision Agriculture | 3 | Agribusiness Management program, Ocala. CF also teaches AOM 2470 Uncrewed and Autonomous Vehicles in Agriculture. |
| Florida SouthWestern State College (FSWSC) | AOM 2433C Introduction to Precision Agriculture | 3 | Integrated lab. Hendry/Glades Curtis Center, from Fall 2026. |
Both carry it at 3 credits. Neither publishes contact hours. The guide records 45, the Florida convention for a three-credit lecture course. FSW's C version would normally meet for about 60.
⚠⚠ Flying a drone for farm work is regulated, and the course does not license you
- Any commercial drone flight, including mapping a field for pay or for a business, requires an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate, earned by passing a knowledge test. CF's companion course
AOM 2470 covers Part 107 explicitly.
- ⚠ Spray drones are regulated further. Dispensing pesticides from any aircraft brings in the FAA's agricultural-aircraft rules (Part 137) and, in Florida, a pesticide applicator licence from FDACS. Imaging and spraying are different jobs with different paperwork.
Prerequisites and transfer
No prerequisite in the statewide record. The bare and C forms are the same course under Florida's numbering. ⚠ Confirm that a receiving college accepts one for the other before you rely on it.
AI Integration (Optional)
This is a course where AI is part of the subject, not just a study aid. Both carriers' outlines name AI and machine learning among the technologies taught. In practice that means models that detect weeds or disease in imagery, predict yield, or turn sensor and satellite data into management zones. ⚠ The judgement the course should build is the farm manager's: a model's map is only as good as the ground-truth data behind it. A recommendation should be checked against a soil test and a walk through the field before it changes what goes on the ground, and the cost of a wrong recommendation falls on the grower, not on the software vendor.