John Stafford became the President of the European Conference on Precision Agriculture Program Committee (ECPA-PC) after the first ECPA, held in 1997 in Warwick (UK). The constituted ECPA-PC was responsible for selecting local organizers and safeguarding the scientific and academic standards of the conference. Following John’s retirement, coinciding with the 14th ECPA, chaired by Maurizio Canavari in Bologna in 2023, a renewal process was initiated to redesign and strengthen the ECPA-PC. The 15th ECPA in 2025 was chaired by Emilio Gil and organized by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya under a provisional ECPA-PC. Subsequently, the renewed ECPA-PC was formally established, with Àlex Escolà as President and Yafit Cohen as Vice-President. Its membership also includes former ECPA chairs and representatives from European countries. More information is available at its new webpage (www.ispag.org/ECPA/Program_Committee).

 

As a next step, the ECPA-PC and ISPA agreed to establish the ECPA-PC as an ISPA Affiliated Organization, preserving the conference’s academic and scientific focus while ensuring its long-term sustainability. Under this framework, future ECPA conferences will be organized through a tripartite partnership involving ISPA, the ECPA-PC, and the local organizing institution.

 

Accordingly, the 16th ECPA, celebrating the conference series’ 30th anniversary in 2027, will be co-organized by ISPA, the ECPA-PC, and Aarhus University, with the collaboration of Københavns Universitet. Coincidentally, the Chair of the 16th ECPA and the President of ISPA are the same person, Davide Cammarano, a circumstance contributing to facilitate the transition to this renewed organizational model. As part of the agreement, the President of the ECPA-PC will participate in ISPA Business Meetings, while the European Representative on the ISPA Board will attend ECPA-PC meetings, further strengthening collaboration between the two organizations.

 

This affiliation completes the ECPA-PC renewal process, which has included the adoption of new bylaws, modernization of the ECPA logo, and the launch of the ECPA website within the ISPA domain: https://ispag.org/ECPA/About_ECPA.

 

We are delighted to formalize this partnership and confident it will help ensure the continued success of the ECPA for many years to come. We look forward to your support as we embark on this new chapter.

 

Alex Escolà and Yafit Cohen

ECPA Program Committee Board

 

Best Fit Interpolator is a free QGIS plugin developed by Laura Delgado Bejarano and Lucas Rios do Amaral. It was created to help researchers and practitioners select and evaluate spatial interpolation methods for digital soil mapping and precision agriculture.

 

The plugin brings several approaches into a single workflow, including IDW, Thin Plate Spline, ordinary kriging, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and Regression Kriging. Users can examine data characteristics, compare validation results, visualize observed and predicted values and generate the final interpolation map. Its Framework section provides guidance based on sample size, spatial structure, covariate availability, and model performance.

 

Version 1.1 improves workflow stability and clarity, with better spatial compatibility checks, synchronized semivariogram visualization, clearer validation information, and corrections to TPS and REML procedures.

 

The scientific basis of the framework is presented in the Precision Agriculture article “Performance of interpolation methods in digital soil mapping: the influence of data characteristics.”

 

Plugin: QGIS Plugin Repository
Source code and documentation: GitHub
Article: Precision Agriculture

The Ministry of Science and Technology is focusing on formulating a formal strategic plan for the development, standardization, and commercialization of drone technology applications in Sri Lanka. National-level discussions regarding this initiative are presided over by the Minister of Science and Technology, Senior officials from numerous institutions, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Defense, the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka, state Universities, the Sri Lanka Air Force, the Sri Lanka Standards Institution, the Arthur C. Clarke Institute, NARA, and the Departments of Survey, Agriculture, and Irrigation.

 

To read the rest of the article, please visit the website. 

 

 

The full article is available HERE. 

 

Precision Field Academy is preparing to launch Cohort 4 of the Precision Agriculture Incubation Program (PAIP), an initiative designed to expose and equip students, young professionals, entrepreneurs, innovators and emerging agricultural leaders with practical knowledge and skills in precision and digital agriculture.

 

PAIP brings together learning and exposure across precision agriculture, agricultural drones and remote sensing, GIS and geospatial technologies, artificial intelligence and data science, IoT and agricultural robotics, digital farming, agritech innovation, entrepreneurship and professional development.

 

While the programme is coordinated from Nigeria, participation is open beyond Nigeria, with the objective of connecting emerging talent across Africa and other parts of the world with knowledge, practitioners and opportunities within the global precision agriculture ecosystem. PAIP Cohort 4 is scheduled to commence in October 2026, with the online programme running from 14 October to 6 November 2026.

 

Programme information:

Graduate Research Assistant (MS) - Agricultural and Biological Engineering - Mississippi State University

Graduate Research Assistant (Ph.D.) position in Precision Water Management - University of Missouri-Columbia