To get the most out of crops, you need to provide them with all necessary minerals. This is possible only with a comprehensive approach – first you need to conduct agrochemical soil analysis, finding out how much nitrogen, phosphorus and other substances there are already located. After that, based on the needs of the culture, which will be planted and the obtained data on the soil composition, it is possible to understand how many substances need to be introduced into the soil.
However, after the culture has risen, such studies are also needed. During the growing season, top feeding will also be needed, so the company «Comprehensive AgroService» offers the service for entering the liquid fertilize, UAN, PPP or their mixtures on the customer's field.
Most often, it needs to be done not at once, according to the principle here you have your day dose of food in one plate, but dosed on several potions. Depending on the condition of the soil and the rate of growth of the crop in different fields, a different situation may arise with the need for fertilization.
One of the actively developing areas for monitoring the status of crops today is visual control, which can be produced by satellites and UAVs. Of course, not only photography is used for evaluation, but the result of spectral analysis of data, which are obtained from several cameras at once. The yield results can be accumulated in the form of cartograms for several years. Fields of reduced yield will be clearly visible, and the value of such data increases with each year of its collecting.
Main ways to get this data – satellites and UAVs equipped with special cameras. Based on the normalized relative vegetation index (NDVI), the amount of photosynthetically active plant mass can be determined. This approach allows you to accurately assess the state of vegetation on any territory. It is based on the formula, where the difference between the reflection of the IR spectrum and visible radiation is divided by their sum. The higher this index, the higher the density of vegetation.
The satellite allows you to evaluate big territory in one time. The presence of clouds prevents its operation. To use the data obtained from the satellites, you can use either free services from NASA, Glovis, Land Viewer, Digitalglobe, USNG, the European Space Agency, or paid counterparts. It is in this case that there is a possibility of a retrospective analysis of the territory. Of course, if this territory was in the focus of these services.
Those owners of large land plots who wish to be able to continuously analyze their territory, regardless of the presence of clouds, can use a UAV with a sensor mounted on it, as an example of – Parrot Sequoia. The advantages of such a technique are: it moves below the clouds and can be used exactly where you need it.
UAV is scanning the field with a sensor Parrot Sequoia
Sensor bandwidth
Cartogram of the field needs in fertilizers
You can expect the ability to process up to 2500 hectares per day by one such drone and to do the research as many times as necessary, which will allow you to more accurately choose the time and place for foliar plant nutrition. Winter crops should receive all necessary fertilizers in 4 separate portions. And if the first is done in the fall, then the other three are already in the spring. It is desirable to evaluate each field, for the needs of plants in nutrients before each application. The fractional addition of nitrogen improves growth and yield, by maintaining a constant level of nitrogen in the soil.
Monitoring of the territory using NDVI technology allows you to more accurately identify the places of increased attention, where you need to insert more of the active substance. Separately, one can recall the possibility of using some modifications of the UAV for the application of the plant protective products and trichogram.
As we already wrote earlier, the use of robotics is increasingly entering our life, including agriculture. As it becomes clear from this article, the use of satellite and UAV imagery in agriculture is very in demand, as it expands the possibilities of monitoring the state of plants and the content of nutrients in the soil.
