Project leader, Dr Michael Robertson, Sustainable Ecosystems, CSIRO, said the project, targeting the northern sandplain, central wheatbelt and Esperance regions, would investigate how global positioning systems and variable rate technology could profitably manage variation across farms.

"Input costs such as fertiliser and fuel are increasing, so it makes sense to use precision agriculture as another tool for improving on-farm efficiency," Dr Robertson said.

"Precision agriculture guidelines will be developed based on the diagnosis of underlying causes of spatial variability in soils, crop yield, natural resource management indicators and profit margins.

"One outcome will be to enable growers to manage variability in their farms, making best use of spatial information, such as yield maps."