THE CURRENT SITUATION

Farming input resources are being managed by majority of farmers using the traditional methods, by which fertilisers, tillage, water for irrigation, seeds and manure are applied uniformly over the entire field area. However, due to the spatial and temporal variability that exits in the vast majority of agricultural fields, uniform rate applications frequently lead to mismanagement of the resources across different parts of a field. Some parts will receive over-applications than the crop actual requirement and response leading to negative environmental impacts and extra cost of extra input applied, with little or no improvement in crop growth and yield. Other parts might receive under-application rates than the crop needs, often leading to poor crop growth and yield and subsequently undesired economic loss.

The current and emerging innovation demands:

With advances in sensing, modelling and control, precision management of farming input resources is possible. Precision management of farm input resources refers to the application of the right rate of input in the right place and time using an integrated solution of sensing, modelling and control technologies. With all advances made in the technology development for precision agriculture applications, the adoption rate by farmers lags behind. This is the most appealing issue that should be tackled so that the investment in precision agriculture can bring these technologies into the farmers hand. However, there are several issues that hinders the adoption. Although profitability is the main derive for farmers to adopt the technology, environmental benefits and sustainability that can be achieved by precision agriculture is another factor that of interest to the farmer but of ultimate interest to the policy makers. In order to promote the adoption of soil related site specific management solutions, advance research using advance technologies and solutions is needed to provide concrete results on potential agronomic, socio-economic, environmental benefits.

Documentation

Documentation

Pilot response to SIEUSOIL objectives

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Stakeholder Requirements

This pilot will establish an integrated solution for variable rate fertilisation of N, P and K. It will relay on the fusion of data on soil using the UGent on-line soil sensor, crop normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) retrieved from satellite images, present and historical yield and weather conditions (if available). This data fusion approach is implemented in map-based variable rate applications. If the approach evaluated as being profitable to the farmers with reduced environmental impacts, it will be offered commercially to end users through a spin-off company to be established by UGent.

Current Scenario

Farming input resources are being managed by majority of farmers using the traditional methods, by which fertilisers, tillage, water for irrigation, seeds and manure are applied uniformly over the entire field area. More advanced farmers implement variable rate technologies at commercial scales to vary the amount of input according to the soil status and crop requirement. They implement variable rate approach with support from service providers. The current soil sensing technology used in Belgium for variable rate (VR) applications is the one adopted by Soil Survey of Belgium and Agrometius (https://www.vantage-agrometius.nl/producten). They use a commercially available on-line soil sensor (Veris, USA) to measure and map soil pH, organic carbon (OC) and electrical resistivity. Soil scanning is then followed by targeted soil sampling and laboratory analyses to determine available nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K). The traditional methods of soil analyses are expensive, time-consuming and allow for limited sampling resolution, which is not sufficient to explore within-field variation in soil properties.

Envisioned Scenario

The proposed approach can be realized in 2 ways:

• It will utilise an innovative on-line (tractor driven) visible and near infrared (vis-NIR) spectroscopy-based multi-sensor platform (Mouazen, 2006) that collects geo-located soil measurements at high sampling resolution (>1500 sample per ha) for precision agriculture decision support. The sensor provides a wide range of valuable information for the farmer, based on a single data collection exercise, including information about soil pH, lime requirement, micro- and macro-nutrients, soil compaction and soil organic matter levels, as well as crop requirements for nitrogen (N), potassium (K) and phosphorus (P).

• By adopting advanced sensing technologies and remote sensing assets, data on soil and crop will be integrated together with auxiliary data on weather, topography and yield, to develop algorithms to determine rules for VR applications. These can then be implemented from within the soil and crop information system. Data collected can be analysed quickly and presented to the farmer via web portal in compatible forms for uploading to variable rate enabled machinery without the logistical and other delays associated with laboratory testing.

Approach

The Pilot 3 solution will be based on the integration of the space assets of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) for geo-location of data and machine control with earth observation satellite imagery (e.g. Sentinel-2) and other crop and soil information (collected with the UGent on-line soil sensor) to optimise crop production decisions. The solution will allow farmers to apply nutrients in the right amount only where they are needed – by measuring variation in fertility levels across fields and matching input addition optimally – and it does this more effectively than existing services that rely on ‘first-generation’ precision farming technology. The resultant treatment maps would then be uploaded to precision agriculture compatible implements for application of N, P and K. However, the solution of variable rate tillage is still at the very beginning stage of development, where a commercial solution needs few years to reach maturity.

Expected Benefits

Expected benefits are optimising the rate of N, P and K fertilisers applied across different parts of a field. This will result in increasing yield and reduce input cost by reducing the amount of N, P and K fertilisers. The overall benefit is improved farming production efficiency by improving the farmer economic return, while reduced environmental footprint and waste is expected.

Stakeholder Description

The farmers in Belgium are the main stakeholders of our Pilot, as they will be the end users to adopt the proposed variable rate fertilisation approach. However, there is also interest in the approach from a farmer in the UK, who owns Manterra Ltd. The other stakeholder is the UGent partner, who plans to set up a spin-off company to commercialise the variable rate N, P, K recommendations, as a service provider.

Stakeholders Connectivity

During dissemination activities that included a series of meetings with different stakeholders the potential of the innovative on-line soil sensing technologies of UGent for deriving variable rate fertilisation recommendations is discussed. In addition to farmers interest in the on-line soil sensor and variable rate approach, AVR is interesting in the soil sensing technologies. A diagram of stakeholder connectivity in the Flanders region is provided in the Figure 7. below. In the following sections, each of these stakeholders are described in more detail. All external stakeholders are interested to learn more about the potential and benefits of the proposed solution, and to commercialize the product if they are proen to be commercially and/or environmentally viable.