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The Precision Agriculture Research Chair (PARC) is viewed as an academic-government cooperative chair of excellence for research and education. The focus of its research efforts would be mainly on the precision agriculture technologies, which include management information systems, mechatronics, smart machines and robotics and machine instrumentation, and transferring these technologies into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In addition, investigating the expected positive impact of precision agriculture on the environment and the agro-economic, along with exploring the potential commercial applications of precision agriculture in Saudi Arabia would also be within the scope of PARC research efforts. In the beginning, PARC would serve as a research and training center to implement the topics above. PARC would eventually develop a mechanism to bring together the research, academic and supporting resources of King Saud University (KSU) and various additional support from partners at other national, regional and international universities/similar centers, government and private agencies to serve PARC research objectives. As a result, PARC would, utilizing collaborative efforts, gradually conduct research that would be of mutual interest to PARC, KSU, agricultural industry in Saudi Arabia and the general public. PARC would be a leader and effective contributor into the relatively new agricultural research direction in Saudi Arabia represented by the precision agriculture technology, and its positive impact on the environment and agro-economy. In addition, PARC would play an important role in raising the awareness, through education, of the importance of the precision agriculture in both government and private agricultural sectors.  These contributions of PARC would be achieved by implementing the following:          

  • Research and field/lab experimentation to develop variable rate technology (VRT) that is applicable in Saudi Arabia.
  • Research that would explore the recent and new approaches, technologies, results, and products and incorporating them into an economic and environment-friendly agriculture.
  • Providing education and training in the general topic of precision agriculture through formal education, such as graduate studies and professional training and informal education that would be directed to the general public and interested audiences.

 The mission of PARC, in brief, is to reduce the undesired consequences of applying agricultural inputs on the natural resources, the environment and the agro-economy through the implementation of modern and effective scientific techniques, technologies, approaches and methods. Direct related research, collaboration with related universities/centers, training and education constitute the tools to realize the mission. PARC outlines a set of general goals and objectives that help achieve the tools, these goals and objectives include the following:

  • Create a specific scope of research that conforms with the requirements of the government agriculture strategy, local agriculture industry and environment agencies, and explore the aspects that can be addressed by employing the proposed precision agriculture technology.
  • Collaborate with universities, centers and scientists either regional and/or international in performing joint research projects.  In addition, participation in multi-national research projects would greatly enhance the realization of PARC main objectives.
  • Provide a good quality graduate education on the precision agriculture topic and encourage the participation of graduate students and related scientists from KSU or any other organization in or outside the Kingdom in the professional training and scientific research efforts.
  • Raise the public awareness of the economic and environmental problems associated with agricultural input applications on agricultural fields. Educate and train students, researchers, policy makers and the general public on the principles of precision agriculture, the related new technologies and the new research trends in this field.        

 
 

Last updated on : January 12, 2023 3:38am