Promoting Precision Agriculture Act

This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop voluntary standards for precision agriculture (i.e., managing, tracking, or reducing crop or livestock production inputs, including seed, feed, fertilizer, chemicals, water, and time at a heightened level of spatial and temporal granularity to improve efficiencies, reduce waste, and maintain environmental quality).

USDA, in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), must develop voluntary, consensus-based, private sector-led interconnectivity standards, guidelines, and best practices for precision agriculture to promote economies of scale and ease the burden of adoption. USDA must (1) coordinate with relevant public and trusted private sector stakeholders and relevant industry organizations, and (2) consult with sector-specific agencies and state and local governments.

Further, in developing the standards, USDA must, in consultation with NIST and the FCC, consider the

connectivity needs of precision agriculture equipment,

Summary by the Congressional Research Service.