Abstract
The precision fertilization system is the basis for upgrading conventional intensive agricultural production, while achieving both high and quality yields and minimizing the negative impacts on the environment. This research aims to present the application of both conventional and modern prediction methods in precision fertilization by integrating agronomic components with the spatial component of interpolation and machine learning. While conventional methods were a cornerstone of soil prediction in the past decades, new challenges to process larger and more complex data have reduced their viability in the present. Their disadvantages of lower prediction accuracy, lack of robustness regarding the properties of input soil sample values and requirements for extensive cost- and time-expensive soil sampling were addressed. Specific conventional (ordinary kriging, inverse distance weighted) and modern machine learning methods (random forest, support vector machine, artificial neural networks, decision trees) were evaluated according to their popularity in relevant studies indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection over the past decade. As a shift towards increased prediction accuracy and computational efficiency, an overview of state-of-the-art remote sensing methods for improving precise fertilization was completed, with the accent on open-data and global satellite missions. State-of-the-art remote sensing techniques allowed hybrid interpolation to predict the sampled data supported by remote sensing data such as high-resolution multispectral, thermal and radar satellite or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based imagery in the analyzed studies. The representative overview of conventional and modern approaches to precision fertilization was performed based on 121 samples with phosphorous pentoxide (P2O5) and potassium oxide (K2O) in a common agricultural parcel in Croatia. It visually and quantitatively confirmed the superior prediction accuracy and retained local heterogeneity of the modern approach. The research concludes that remote sensing data and methods have a significant role in improving fertilization in precision agriculture today and will be increasingly important in the future.
Highlights
The increasing need for food production due to population growth is the cause of the continuous intensification of agricultural production, which leads to higher yields of agricultural crops on existing agricultural land [1]
By applying soil prediction methods, data from soil chemical analysis, global navigation satelliteitsystem (GNSS) observations and other relevant data are combined into one modular unit, representing a spatial distribution of the present state of available soil nutrients [30]
Spatial interpolation to create a prescription map in precision fertilization is conventionally performed in 2D and based on prediction according to the values of neighboring samples and relative distance to them [31]
Summary
The increasing need for food production due to population growth is the cause of the continuous intensification of agricultural production, which leads to higher yields of agricultural crops on existing agricultural land [1]. Spatial continuous data are crucial for making reliable prescription maps in precision fertilization This property primarily refers to basic fertilization, where site-specific prescription zones form the basis of practical application based on discrete soil sampling [10]. By applying soil prediction methods, data from soil chemical analysis, GNSS observations and other relevant data are combined into one modular unit, representing a spatial distribution of the present state of available soil nutrients [30] Such an approach enables observing local variability and creating prescription maps.
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