An effective administration of micronutrients and macronutrients must always take into account the amount of nutrients taken up by the crop in its cycle, the share of nitrogen supplied by the soil to the crop itself, and the contribution of atmospheric deposition.
Conventional fertiliser distribution strategies are based on the concept of uniformity, i.e. the administration of the same quantities of product in every area of the farm plot. However, these conventional approaches do not take into account the complexity of the interactions that occur between the crop and the soil.
Precision fertilisation studies the variability in space and time of each portion of the plot, a variability that is related to the physical, chemical and biological processes in the soil that make the administered nutrient available.
Generally, two approaches can be followed to distribute nutrients in the right amounts, where and when needed:
a) nitrogen distribution mediated by proximal sensors, installed on the tractor, on the go;
b) varying doses in the field according to harvest maps, satellite indices, soil and climate variables, by loading prescription maps into the control system of the operating machinery.
The agricultural machinery and equipment market offers solutions that allow, via the cloud, the integration of data obtained in fertiliser distribution operations. In order to monitor the effect of fertiliser management on yield, it is necessary to integrate data from machines and equipment. In this way, corrective actions can be optimised and farm management can be managed in a single environment.