SHAFTER, Calif. - A three-foot tall tangle of computers and cameras sitting in a dusty USDA warehouse is being heralded as the greatest thing to happen to farmers since the invention of the tractor.
The high-tech pod fits snugly into the hold of any survey plane and uses cameras that capture images in light spectrums. The resulting photos can detect crop damage from thousands of feet in the air, often before it's visible to people on the ground.
''The idea is to be able to detect the onset of problems when you might be able to do something about them,'' said Stephan Maas, plant physiologist at the USDA's Shafter Research Center in California's Central Valley.
His remote sensing technology, dubbed the Shafter Airborne Mulitispectural Remote Sensing System, captures images with digital cameras and stores the data on computer disks. Researchers then analyze the images to detect subtle light patterns that indicate various types of crop damage.
Maas' lab is figuring out how to detect mineral deficiencies and insect infestations in cotton crops using the special cameras, which capture images using near-infrared, green and red filters. A thermal infrared camera records crop temperatures and is used to help researchers determine if a particular patch of field needs more or less water.
Other crops could soon benefit from his research as well, Mass said, and by 2003, satellite images will be available for agricultural uses.
''Right now this technology is sort of at its infancy stage,'' Maas said.
Still, California farmers seem ready for any technological advancement that gives them an edge over Mother Nature. And farmers all over the country are dabbling in the use of mulitispectural aerial photographs to identify areas of relative crop growth, how well one part of a field is growing compared to another.
Currently, farmers pay between $4 and $10 an acre for aerial photographs that show if one part of a crop is growing in better than another part.
To many farmers, Maas' research represents a giant step forward in the development of farm technology. It advances the search for the agricultural industry's Holy Grail - increased crop yields accompanied by reduced production costs, said Ted Sheely, owner of Sheely Farms in Fresno County.
This new imaging technology allows farmers to pinpoint exactly where they need to concentrate resources like fertilizers or pesticides rather than just having a general idea about what part of a crop might be growing better than another, he said.
Sheely, who grows cotton, tomatoes, garlic and pistachios on 1,000 acres, has allowed agricultural researchers to use his farm for years. He says that, combined with harvesters and tractors armed with extremely accurate Global Positioning System navigation units, Maas' early-warning system could revolutionize farming.
Farmers will be able to map exactly where in their fields they have mite infestations, for example. They can then drive out to the troubled spots and use precisely the amounts of pesticides needed.
''At any given time, I have about 20 researchers on the ranch from the USDA, NASA, the University of California and local, private consultants,'' Sheely said.
''And they're all trying to come up with a way to use this imaging system commercially,'' he said.
The search for commercial applications for advanced imaging technology began in earnest in the late 1970s and early 1980s. NASA scientists and university researchers created a stir in the agricultural world as they began to develop remote sensing devices that could detect barren spots in fields using aerial or satellite photos.
But the systems were expensive and couldn't tell farmers anything they didn't already know, so the excitement died down pretty quickly, said Jeff Lowenburg-Deboore, an agricultural economist at Indiana's Purdue University, a nexus of farm technology research.
''Now the technology with digital cameras and computers makes it much more easy for us to do this kind of thing than it was years ago,'' Maas said.
But Lowenburg-Deboore says there are still big problems to solve before this technology is useful in everyday farming practices.
''As far I know, there is no economic assessment of these technologies in agriculture. The work has all been on the technology side,'' he said.
Farmers who want to use this early-detection technology will probably have to be growing high-value crops that can be modified midseason, like cotton or grapes, he said. If farmers discover problems with insects or mineral levels in these types of crops, they are able to treat their fields with pesticides or fertilizer.
But that leaves corn, soybean and wheat farmers without much use for the high-tech system or the specialized information it provides because after a stage fairly early in the growth cycle, applying pesticides or fertilizer to those crops can end up causing more damage than it prevents.
''In academic circles, there is still quite a bit of skepticism about how useful it will prove to be. But there's also quite a bit of interest,'' he said.
