MICROCLIMATES FIVE YARDS WIDE.

MICROCLIMATES FIVE YARDS WIDE. I posted here about Fernand Braudel’s use of the idea of a microclimate—that each square mile of the earth has its own climate. The Economist had an article a couple months ago about how satellites are measuring electromagnetic radiation reflected from farmland and devising precise prescriptions for tailoring the right amount of seed, fertilizer, pesticide and water for each part of a field. What is striking is how small the land areas are that are being analyzed. One satellite service in France selects one out of about fifty fertilizer formulas to apply to zones that are one third or one fourth of a hectare. (Each zone would be about half as big as an American football field.) A Canadian service is forecasting yields for patches about five yards on a side. All this dramatizes for me again how broad a region our local weather forecasts deal with—if the microclimate can change every five yards. Use of one of the services can increase yields by as much as 10%. Satellite information is now being prepared for 42 African countries, and, because some soils there have been depleted of nutrients, perhaps the satellite services can increase yields in some places by more than 10%.