Devices And Methods In The Adaptive Landscape Farming System

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

To develop adaptive landscape agriculture in your country house, you need to start with the collection and generalization of agrochemical and landscape source information. To do this, it is necessary to determine the fertility of each square meter of the summer cottage field, map the garden plot, and then, on their basis, determine the exact doses of fertilizers, develop a technology for growing plants and harvesting.

During the summer, operational diagnostics of the state of plants is additionally removed, and during harvesting, the missing information is collected again, the existing information is clarified, after which new technologies are drawn up for the next growing season.

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This work takes two years - and the precision farming system is considered mastered. In the following publications, we will try to reveal the essence of all this work with specific examples, calculate the doses of fertilizers, draw up cultivation technologies so that everyone can implement the system at their site in nature.

And today we will introduce you to adaptive landscape precision technology used in industrial agriculture, in a large agricultural enterprise.

The collection of agrochemical and landscape information in industrial production is carried out using numerous instruments and satellite systems developed at the Agrophysical Institute of the Russian Agricultural Academy. General reconnaissance is first performed with the help of a radio-controlled unmanned aerial mobile complex with geographic information referencing via satellite, which allows aerial monitoring of agricultural fields.

In aerial photography of fields, the state of a specific soil, specific crops and plantings in a specific landscape is remotely determined. This information is then used to differentiate fertilization with precise doses for each square meter of the field, plant protection products and fertilizing.

For a more detailed determination of the content of nutrients in the soil and carrying out agrochemical analyzes, an automated complex is used for conducting an agrochemical survey with gps-binding of selected samples, mounted on a car.

The complex is equipped with a GPS satellite receiver, an on-board computer, an automatic soil sampler and special software that allows you to create electronic contours (maps) of fields (with centimeter accuracy) and conduct agrochemical soil surveys at a modern level using the latest scientific advances in information technology.

Based on the information collected by this complex, cartograms of the soil area are compiled, which are used to develop technology for the cultivation of agricultural plants, to determine the soil cultivation system, fertilizer system, determine the doses of fertilizers and the need for chemical plant protection products and for other necessary agrotechnical measures.

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The resulting cartograms reflect the soil condition of an individual field or even a garden plot, an entire farm, or, for example, the entire Leningrad region. If you look at the cartogram of the entire Leningrad Region, created in order to determine the potential of fields for growing potatoes, you will notice that when cultivating this crop, the possible yield, depending on soil fertility, ranges from 40 to 400 centners of tubers per hectare, that is, it differs by ten time.

It can be seen that not everywhere you can get a good harvest, especially when cultivating plants according to an organic system, without the introduction of fertilizers and plant protection products. Yellow, orange and red colors characterize areas where you can grow the lowest potato yield, greenish color allows you to get a yield in front of 120-180 centners / ha. This is better, but not enough. And only in the dark blue areas of the region it is possible to get yields of more than 200 c / ha, which is quite acceptable.

The minimum yield that can be obtained on infertile soils is 1.5-2 times higher than the planting rate of tubers. Naturally, she cannot suit anyone. For example, you planted a bucket of potatoes, and you got 1.5-2 buckets of harvest. This is ineffective. In such areas, it is necessary to introduce modern farming systems that allow a yield of 1 in 10.

We have seen cartograms of a small (summer cottage) field. So even on it, the difference in soil fertility is sometimes significant. The spatial diversity of the field is noted in terms of soil fertility, sometimes it differs by 5-6 times. It is also difficult to grow a good harvest on such a garden plot.

A detailed description of soil fertility up to the smallest contour equal to 1 square meter is needed in order to even out fertility with the help of fertilizers and agronomic measures. Such a detailed characterization of the soil can be obtained not only by using satellite systems and complex automated systems, but also by simple manual accounting of plant yield, which we will do by determining soil fertility by manually measuring the actual productivity of plants in a specific agricultural landscape. This method is also used in large agricultural enterprises.

When harvesting grain crops, data on soil fertility are automatically determined by devices installed on the combine, where the mass of threshed grain and straw is weighed from each square meter, and according to the yield of plants, cartograms of soil fertility of a particular field are then compiled.

This method of accounting for the mass of the plant yield is available to gardeners and summer residents, it is enough just to weigh the harvested crop of plants from each square meter and draw up cartograms manually. It's not difficult at all

The size of the grown crop rather well characterizes the level of soil fertility, and this fertility will correspond to a specific landscape, since the crop is a function of those conditions that actually developed in a specific place, in a specific gardening and in a specific summer resident.

And then it will be very easy to create an adaptive landscape system. We will analyze in detail the methodology for accounting for the yield and soil fertility in the following publications. After collecting information on soil fertility in a specific landscape, cartograms are drawn up, fertilizer doses are calculated for each square meter of the plot, they are applied on a specific square meter of the field, sowed, looked after and harvested, by the size of which it is again determined: is it correct everything was done.

During the growing season, the plants again monitor the nutritional situation of the plants, determining what they lack or what is in excess. This is done using hand-held devices or automatically using an unmanned aerial vehicle. This can also be done during the maintenance of crops, for example, before planting or when hilling potatoes, a computer and devices that control the growth and development of plants are installed in the tractor cab, which record information and give commands to apply fertilizers or plant protection products in the right quantities directly to field, directly for each small plot (1 m2). This is all done on large areas where one person cannot cope. At the summer cottage, all this can be done manually.

The processes occurring in the soil-sowing-atmosphere system are also monitored using a stationary multifunctional 32-channel automatic agrometeorological station (CAAS-AFI), which is designed to study in the field the processes occurring in the soil-sowing-atmosphere complex, including measuring and registration of parameters of the surface layer of air, parameters of heat and mass transfer in soil and parameters characterizing the state of plants.

All these complexes and devices were developed at the Agrophysical Institute of the Russian Agricultural Academy. Gardeners do not need to have them at home, because it is very expensive, the owner of six acres can do everything manually: weigh the crop, draw up cartograms and technologies, in addition, he can use the Internet - data on the weather, the spread of diseases and plant pests, or get information from a nearby weather station. This small sightseeing excursion to the world of adaptive landscape precision farming, to the world of science, which we have done, we hope, will be useful for gardeners and summer residents, it gives an idea of the scale and possibilities of work on the development of a landscape environmentally friendly farming system. We wish you success!

Read all parts of the article about adaptive landscape farming:

• What is adaptive landscape farming

• Components of an adaptive landscape farming system

• Devices and methods in an adaptive landscape farming system

• Summer cottage farming: mapping fields, observing crop rotation

• Determining the structure of crops and crop rotations

• Fertilizer system as a basic element of summer cottage farming

• What fertilizers are needed for various vegetable crops

• Tillage systems

• Technologies of adaptive landscape farming system

• Black and pure fallow