GPS Enhancement Benefits Agriculture

May 2, 2000

President Clinton’s announcement that the United States will stop the intentional "degradation" of the global positioning system signals benefits agriculture. Precision agriculture technology uses GPS systems for various agricultural practices.

Clinton made the announcement Monday that without intentional interference from the military, GPS receivers will be able to pinpoint locations up to 10 times more accurately than they do now. GPS is a dual-use satellite-based system that provides accurate location and timing data to users worldwide.

The decision to discontinue "selective availability" is the latest measure in "an ongoing effort to make GPS more responsive to civil and commercial users worldwide," said Clinton, and was based on a recommendation by the defense secretary in coordination with the Departments of State, Transportation, Commerce, the director of Central Intelligence and other executive branch departments and agencies.

Clinton said civilian users "will realize a dramatic improvement in GPS accuracy with the discontinuation of selective availability. It has many applications worldwide including air, road, marine and rail navigation, telecommunications, emergency response, oil exploration, mining and agriculture. In agriculture, GPS is used to measure crop yields and measure a crop’s response to fertilizers and other agricultural inputs as well as to map fields.