Precision Agriculture最新文献

In the context of limited resources and a growing demand for food due to an increase in the worldwide population, irrigation plays a vital role, and the efficient use of water is a major objective. In pressurized irrigation systems, water management is linked to high energy requirements, which is especially relevant in sprinkler irrigation. Therefore, decision support models are important for optimizing the design and management of irrigation systems. In this study, a holistic model for solid set irrigation systems (SORA 2024) was developed. This new model integrates hydraulic models at the subunit and plot levels to evaluate the distribution of pressure (EPANET, Rossman in The EPANET programmer’s toolkit for analysis of water distribution systems, Tempe, Arizona, 1999), the discharge and water distribution for each emitter (SIRIAS, Carrion et al. in , Irrig Sci 20(2):73–84, 2001) and the distribution of water applied by all the emitters of the subunit (SORA, Carrión et al. in Irrig Sci 20(2): 73–84, 2001). The integrated model also includes crop simulation (AQUACROP, Steduto et al. in Agron J 101(3), 426–437, 2009). to assess the effect of water distribution on crop production. The objective of this holistic model is to assist in decision-making processes for designing, sizing, upgrading, and managing solid set irrigation systems at the sprinkler level. The new integrated model (SORA 2024) was applied to a 2.84 ha commercial plot with 2 irrigation sectors that grow onion crops (Allium cepa L.). It was used to analyse each irrigation event from a real irrigation season, considering the conditions (pressure, irrigation time/periods, environmental conditions, and so on). The analysis is based on the sprinkler–nozzle combination, working pressure and wind direction and intensity during each irrigation event. The model also accounts for the cumulative effect/impact of all irrigation events on the plot. The model was validated through field trials using the “crop as a sensor” approach (Sarig et al. in , Agron 11(3):2021). To demonstrate the effectiveness of the model, the choice of nozzles in each sprinkler of the subunit was optimized. This is a quick and cost-effective way for farmers to improve their irrigation systems. By using this method, farmers can achieve better uniformity of water application and a slight increase in crop yield while maintaining the same irrigation schedule and amount of water used. Furthermore, the model enables farmers to work at the emitter level while integrating the results for the entire plot. This allows for precise irrigation of variable dosages by using different sprinkler–nozzle combinations in the same subunit. Farmers can do this based on the prior zoning of the plot, which is determined by its productive potential. This justifies the use of different irrigation dosages in each zone.

Introduction

Satellite-sourced data have become a valuable resource for precision agriculture because they provide crucial insights into various parameters that are essential for effective crop management. An array of practical agricultural tools provides comprehensive data for assessing crop biomass, soil conditions, and plant stress symptoms, predicting yields, and performing other functions. Satellite data, when combined with in situ data from different sources, can significantly enhance biomass and yield estimations.

Material and Methods

The ability of the “PROcesses of radiation, Mass and Energy Transfer” (PROMET) model to predict crop biomass and grain yield and to optimize nitrogen fertilization during the vegetation period was investigated. Field trials were conducted to assess the accuracy and limitations of biomass and yield predictions.

Results and Conclusion

The predicted yields were sufficiently accurate on a whole-field basis, and site-specific values showed strong correlations. In additional field trials with different fertilization strategies, the highest yield and nitrogen efficiency were observed for the PROMET-based strategy. Additional experiments with different crops and greater durations are needed to draw a more reliable conclusion.

Purpose

The use of Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data for predicting crop above-ground biomass (AGB) is becoming a more feasible alternative to destructive methods. However, canopy height, vegetation index (VI), and other traditional features can become saturated during the mid to late stages of crop growth, significantly impacting the accuracy of AGB prediction.

Methods

In 2022 and 2023, UAV multispectral, RGB, and light detection and ranging point cloud data of wheat populations were collected at seven growth stages across two experimental fields. The point cloud depth features were extracted using the improved PointNet++ network, and AGB was predicted by fusion with VI, color index (CI), and texture index (TI) raster image features.

Results

The findings indicate that when the point cloud depth features were fused, the R² values predicted from VI, CI, TI, and canopy height model images increased by 0.05, 0.08, 0.06, and 0.07, respectively. For the combination of VI, CI, and TI, R² increased from 0.86 to a maximum of 0.9, while the root-mean-square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error were 1.80 t ha⁻¹ and 1.36 t ha⁻¹, respectively. Additionally, our findings revealed that the hybrid fusion exhibits the highest accuracy, it demonstrates robust adaptability in predicting AGB across various years, growth stages, crop varieties, nitrogen fertilizer applications, and densities.

Conclusion

This study effectively addresses the saturation in spectral and chemical information, provides valuable insights for high-precision phenotyping and advanced crop field management, and serves as a reference for studying other crops and phenotypic parameters.

The success of Variable Rate Application (VRA) techniques is closely linked to the algorithm used to calculate the different fertilizer rates. In this study, we proposed an algorithm based on the integration between some estimated agronomic inputs and crop radiometric data acquired by using a multispectral sensor. Generally, VRA algorithms are evaluated by comparing the yields, but they can often be affected by factors acting in the final phase of the crop cycle and not dependent on the fertilization treatments. Therefore, we decided to compare our algorithm (ALG) versus the traditional application of fertilizer (TRD) by evaluating the crop growth 1.5 months after the fertilization time. The algorithm was tested on a sorghum crop under organic farming, managed with or without manure. The saving of N obtained with ALG was equal to 14 and 5 kg ha^− 1 (-14 and − 10% for the non-manure and fertilized treatments, respectively). The NDVI values acquired after fertilization showed a remarkable reduction of relative standard deviation for ALG system (from 22 to 9% and from 34 to 14% for manured and not manured, respectively), which was not found for TRD system (from 16 to 17% and from 29 to 18% for manured and not manured, respectively). The above ground biomass produced was statistically equivalent for the two systems in the manured plots and significant higher for ALG in not-manured plots (+ 0.74 t ha^− 1 of dm, equal to + 23%). Finally, the indices calculated to evaluate the Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) were consistently better in the ALG theses.

Purpose

Fruit detection and counting represent one of the most important steps toward yield estimation and a well-known practice for farmers, on which they base the management of the harvesting, storage, and distribution phases of agricultural products. In the era of precision agriculture, yield estimation, which was previously performed only by human operators, is currently being re-designed through the employment of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision techniques. Despite the impressive results that AI has demonstrated in fruit detection systems, they rely on large image datasets, whose availability is still limited if compared to the great number of crop typologies. For this reason, great interest has recently been devoted to weakly supervised algorithms, which can reduce the dataset annotation effort required by using simple image-level labels.

Method

Based on these considerations, this work proposes a new method relying on a sample-efficient weakly supervised approach. The proposed system, named MangoDetNet, is trained through a two-stage curriculum learning approach, first involving an image reconstruction task, and secondly an image binary classification task for heatmap generation. In particular, during the first stage, the network is trained in an unsupervised manner for the image reconstruction task, in order to promote the learning of robust feature extractors that are customized for the fruit scenarios. The second stage of training, instead, is performed to achieve image binary classification, employing presence/absence binary labels. This phase further refines the feature extractor from the previous stage and favors the computation of more refined and precise activation maps.

Conclusion

As demonstrated through the experimental campaign, performed on a mango orchard image dataset, MangoDetNet is able to outperform the state-of-the-art weakly supervised approaches, providing an F1 score equal to 0.861, which is on par with those of fully supervised methods, and an F1 score equal to 0.856 when halving the number of labeled samples needed for training.

There are currently many in-field methods for estimating soil properties (e.g., pH, texture, total C, total N) available in precision agriculture, but each have their own level of suitability and only a few can be used for direct determination of plant-available nutrients. As promising approaches for reliable in-field use, this review provides an overview of electromagnetic, conductivity-based, and electrochemical techniques for estimating plant-available soil nutrients and pH. Soil spectroscopy, conductivity, and ion-specific electrodes have received the most attention in proximal soil sensing as basic tools for precision agriculture during the last two decades. Spectral soil sensors provide indication of plant-available nutrients and pH, and electrochemical sensors provide highly accurate nitrate and pH measurements. This is currently the best way to accurately measure plant-available phosphorus and potassium, followed by spectral analysis. For economic and practicability reasons, the combination of multi-sensor in-field methods and soil data fusion has proven highly successful for assessing the status of plant-available nutrients in soil for precision agriculture. Simultaneous operation of sensors can cause problems for example because of mutual influences of different signals (electrical or mechanical). Data management systems provide relatively fast availability of information for evaluation of soil properties and their distribution in the field. For rapid and broad adoption of in-field soil analyses in farming practice, in addition to accuracy of fertilizer recommendations, certification as an official soil analysis method is indispensable. This would strongly increase acceptance of this innovative technology by farmers.

Background

Remote sensing based on multispectral imaging may be useful for detecting vegetation stress responses in agriculture.

Objectives

To evaluate the potential of orbital multispectral imaging in discriminating the most effective strategies for reducing plant-parasitic nematode populations, thereby preventing yield losses in coffee production.

Methods

Coffee plants were treated with eleven treatments, including Bacillus spp. isolates, commercial biological products, commercial chemical nematicides, and water (control group). Initial and final nematode populations in the soil were quantified, and surface reflectance data were collected using the Planet orbital multispectral sensor. The data were classified using the random tree algorithm.

Results

The population of plant-parasitic nematodes was reduced by 35.90% and 55.13% following the application of B. amyloliquefaciens isolate B266 and B. subtilis isolate B33, respectively. Under the conditions of this experiment, multispectral imaging accurately discriminated the most nematicidal treatments, with a global accuracy of 80%.

Conclusions

Orbital multispectral imaging can discriminate the most effective treatments used for nematode management in coffee plants, highlighting its potential as a supportive tool in agriculture.

Introduction

Context Data-driven models (DDMs) are increasingly used for crop yield prediction due to their ability to capture complex patterns and relationships. DDMs rely heavily on data inputs to provide predictions. Despite their effectiveness, DDMs can be complemented by inputs derived from mechanistic models (MMs).

Methods

This study investigated enhancing the predictive quality of DDMs by using as features a combination of MMs outputs, specifically biomass and soil moisture, with conventional data sources like satellite imagery, weather, and soil information. Four experiments were performed with different datasets being used for prediction: Experiment 1 combined MM outputs with conventional data; Experiment 2 excluded MM outputs; Experiment 3 was the same as Experiment 1 but all conventional temporal data were omitted; Experiment 4 utilised solely MM outputs. The research encompassed ten field-years of wheat and chickpea yield data, applying the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBOOST) algorithm for model fitting. Performance was evaluated using root mean square error (RMSE) and the concordance correlation coefficient (CCC).

Results and conclusions

The validation results showed that the XGBOOST model had similar predictive power for both crops in Experiments 1, 2, and 3. For chickpeas, the CCC ranged from 0.89 to 0.91 and the RMSE from 0.23 to 0.25 t ha⁻¹. For wheat, the CCC ranged from 0.87 to 0.92 and the RMSE from 0.29 to 0.35 t ha⁻¹. However, Experiment 4 significantly reduced the model's accuracy, with CCCs dropping to 0.47 for chickpeas and 0.36 for wheat, and RMSEs increasing to 0.46 and 0.65 t ha⁻¹, respectively. Ultimately, Experiments 1, 2, and 3 demonstrated comparable effectiveness, but Experiment 3 is recommended for achieving similar predictive quality with a simpler, more interpretable model using biomass and soil moisture alongside non-temporal conventional features.

Purpose

This paper proposes a low-cost and low-effort solution for determining the area of corn crops damaged by the wildlife facility utilising field images collected by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The proposed solution allows for the determination of the percentage of the damaged crops and their location.

Methods

The method utilises image segmentation models based on deep convolutional neural networks (e.g., UNet family) and transformers (SegFormer) trained on over 300 hectares of diverse corn fields in western Poland. A range of neural network architectures was tested to select the most accurate final solution.

Results

The tests show that despite using only easily accessible RGB data available from inexpensive, consumer-grade UAVs, the method achieves sufficient accuracy to be applied in practical solutions for agriculture-related tasks, as the IoU (Intersection over Union) metric for segmentation of healthy and damaged crop reaches 0.88.

Conclusion

The proposed method allows for easy calculation of the total percentage and visualisation of the corn crop damages. The processing code and trained model are shared publicly.

Purpose

The adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in the agricultural sector has enormous potential for improving productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. Understanding the predictors affecting the acceptance of IoT-enabled agricultural systems (IAS) is crucial for policymakers, researchers, and industry practitioners.

Methods

This study adopted a cross-sectional design, collected quantitative data from 458 agro-entrepreneurs through structured interviews during July 2022, and applied partial least squares structural equation modeling for data analysis.

Results

The findings revealed that perceived need for IAS (β=0.187) and tolerance of diversity (β=0.166) positively linked with the attitude towards IAS, whereas attitude towards IAS (β=0.262), knowledge about IAS (β=0.309), industry influence (β=0.223), and IoT compatibility (β=0.274) have a positive effect on agroentrepreneurs’ intentions to adopt IAS at the 1% level of significance. Finally, the intention to adopt IAS shows a positive effect (β=0.442) on the adoption of IAS among the Chinese agro-entrepreneurs at the 1% level of significance. Using a multigroup analysis, this study also examined the associations based on the respondents’ age, gender, education level, land size, and monthly income.

Conclusion

This study establishes its originality by examining the relationship between original constructs derived from the theory of planned behavior and contextual factors, such as perceived need, industry influence, tolerance of diversity, innovativeness, knowledge, and compatibility, and investigating the relevant factors, thereby enhancing the comprehension of technology adoption processes in the agricultural sector. The results provide guidance to policymakers and professionals in formulating approaches to encourage the use of IoT in agriculture, supporting the objectives of the "Agriculture 4.0 Policy" and "Digital Rural Development Strategy" in China, and promoting sustainable development goals (SDG 13).