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Precision agriculture and optimum fertigation are effective tools to obtain economical crop production. A multi seasonal experiment was conducted on corn at Faisalabad, Pakistan during autumn seasons of 2017 and 2018 to optimize the use of fertilizers and explore the effects of precision agriculture on crop production and fertilizer savings under d...
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Context 1
... results of soil analysis showed that the soil of the study area was sandy loam (Table 2). The bulk density of upper 15 cm soil layer varied from 1.51 to 1.57 g/cm 3 . ...Similar publications
Drip irrigation and fertigation, being advocated for higher crop and water productivity require optimization of irrigation and fertilization schedules. Field experiments were conducted during 2016–2018 to evaluate water and energy-efficient drip irrigation and fertigation schedules for higher productivity and profitability from oilseed rape. The tr...
Citations
Farm produce is essential to feed growing world population, even as the area of land available for agriculture decreases. Farmers tend to over apply water and fertilizer to maximize crop yield, since knowledge of soil conditions is insufficient for a more targeted application. The over application of water needlessly uses a scarce resource, especially in drier climates. The over application of fertilizer wastes the fertilizer, increases greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and degrades downstream water as algae increases and oxygen decreases. The purpose of our project was to develop modules for soil testing and transmitting of data to the hub computer that would be accessible by the farmer. The sensors and transmitter were developed and tested to be mounted on a stake that would be implanted in the soil of the field, and results transmitted to a hub computer that would provide a dashboard of results and control for the farmer to use in making decisions. Prototype modules were developed for soil nutrients and pH. Modules were tested for monitoring moisture and wireless data transmission. Such a system would provide soil condition information that the farmer could use to more apply appropriate amounts of water and fertilizer, and not over apply.
So far, many studies have examined the effects of surface (FF) and drip (DF) fertigation compared to surface (FC) and drip (DC) irrigation along with fertilization at different levels of fertilizer on crop yield indices, nutrient use efficiency (NUE), and irrigation water productivity (WP); however, each of them have been conducted under different conditions. Because of the scattered results and the lack of a general conclusion from the published results, conducting a meta-analysis as a structured method for arriving at an overall conclusion regarding the effects of different fertigation methods on different indices is essential. This study was conducted to examine the effects of surface and drip fertigation methods and different fertilizer application levels on crop yield, NUE, and WP. To this end, eight global databases of publications (e.g., Scopus and Web of Science) were reviewed. A total of 5494 studies were extracted, of which 32 studies met the entry criteria for the meta-analysis. To assess the effects of fertigation, each study was used to extract the effect sizes for each index. A total of 119 effect sizes were obtained for crop yield, 85 for NUE, and 84 for WP. The meta-analysis results showed that surface and drip fertigation methods increased the average yield by 20%. NUE and WP on an average increased by 26% and 51%, respectively. Based on the reported results, the optimal fertilizer application level is 75% of the recommended dose, which can reduce fertilizer use by 25% without significantly reducing the yield. In general, fertigation can be recommended as an effective operation for improving the proposed indices examined in both surface and drip fertigation methods.
Technological evolution is essential to make irrigated agriculture more efficient in the use of water. Thus, this review article aims to contextualize irrigation in the age of agriculture 4.0 in order to address how these new technologies are impacting the rational use of water. With regard to the automation of irrigated systems, irrigation efficiency with moisture sensors, applications using smartphone, controllers and fertilizer injectors, as well as how their operation can promote irrigation, was addressed. Regarding irrigation management, the use of remote sensing as an option to determine crop evapotranspiration was contextualized, listing the types of spectral bands and sensors used to collect images (orbital, aerial and terrestrial), in the monitoring of crop water status. The importance of data collection in the delineations of management zones for precision irrigation and what possible advances can still be achieved with regard to obtaining and analyzing data were also discussed. Finally, it is concluded that, despite the high efficiency of automated irrigation systems, information of soil, climate and plant attributes obtained through the range of data provided by sensors will be responsible for mitigating the global impacts caused by irrigated agriculture in the near future, since this information can enhance irrigation, with maximum efficiency, thus reducing water consumption by agriculture.
