[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 26 (Friday, February 12, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S1637]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            STENNIS TECHNOLOGY HELPS FARMERS AND ENVIRONMENT

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I call my colleagues' attention to a recent 
Associated Press article on the Gulf of Mexico ``Dead Zone'', a large 
area that suffers from hypoxia, a lack of oxygen in the water. The 
article states that researchers attending the national meeting of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science say that fertilizer 
runoff, which is rich in nitrogen, into the Mississippi River may 
contribute to this oxygen deprivation.
  Now, I do not know the extent to which this may be true. However, I 
am proud to say that the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi is working 
on a high technology system that may hold the key to reducing farm 
nitrogen runoff while improving crop yield. The NASA Commercial Remote 
Sensing Program Office at Stennis, in concert with the local farming 
industry, are developing a new technique known as precision farming. It 
is, in real-time, bringing space age technology down to earth. 
Precision farming uses emerging space-based instruments to monitor 
farmers' soil content and computer technology to target fertilizer 
level to maximize crop yield. It will replace the widely used practice 
of fertilizing the entire crop to the same degree. Precision farming 
allows the farmer to give the land only what it needs.
  Mr. Kenneth Hood of Perthshire Farms, in the Mississippi Delta town 
of Gunnison in Bolivar County, which is about 25 miles north of 
Greenville, monitors the health and soil consistency of his farm 
through NASA hyperspectral imaging techniques. This technique allows 
Mr. Hood to add fertilizer as needed in specific portions of his 
acreage. It also helps him detect crop stress, before it can be seen 
through the human eye. Stennis Space Center's goal is to help Mr. Hood 
use less fertilizer, lower his costs, and improve his crop yield.
  This is a win for the farmer and a win for the environment. Most 
importantly, this technology may yield a private sector incentive to 
voluntarily reduce farm fertilizer runoff, a far better solution than 
imposing regulatory burdens or subsidizing inefficient and less 
productive fertilizer limits.
  NASA's Commercial Remote Sensing Program Office at Stennis Space 
Center should be congratulated for developing practical and productive 
commercial uses of this technology. This imaging technique, I believe, 
has application in other areas as well, such as in highway planning, 
environmental monitoring, resource exploration, coastal zone management 
and timber management.
  Mr. President, I encourage all of my colleagues with an interest to 
contact Mr. David Brannon of the Stennis Space Center's Commercial 
Remote Sensing Program. I am sure many of my colleagues have farmers 
such as Mr. Hood who want to improve crop yield, decrease costs, and be 
good stewards of the environment. All they need to do is call Stennis 
and learn about what Mississippi has to offer.

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