On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:17:51 -0800 (PST), Higgs Boson
wrote:

True, most of us are home gardeners rather than farmers, but I found
this article fascinating for its innovative approach to analyzing
"microclimates" rather than large acreages, with potential for helping
to solve the world's looming food shortages.
[snip]
It tells them when it is best to plant seeds, when to spray pesticides
and even which crop is most suitable for each square-kilometer field,
said Uri Dayan, a climatologist from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

What part of "square kilometer" field sounds like anything other than
a fairly large acreage (not by some US agri-business farms of course).

Which crop is most suitable will also depend on soil makeup and
drainage - neither of which will be revealed by sat imagry.

Pesticide application is probably chiefly controlled by temperature
and rainfall (want to interrupt the breeding cycle of the pests) - I
could see some use there, but is the farmer supposed to wait, with
baited breath, for the sat data to say "spray now!" ?