14TSB_ESAP: Tru-Nject: Proximal soil sensing based variable rate application of subsurface fertiliser liquid injection in vegetable/combinable crops

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The research team at Cranfield will be responsible to carry out the on-line visible and near infrared (vi-NIR) measurment inselected experimental fields. Prior and during the on-line soil measurement, soil samples will be collected for upgrading thegeneral calibration functions already developed at Cranfield University. These upgraded calibration functions will bevalidated for accuracy estimation against laboratory measured soil organic carbon (OC), total nitrogenv(TN), pH,phosphorous (P), magnesium (Mg), calcium (ca), moisture content (MC) and clay content (CC). The laboratory analyses ofthese soil properties will be carried out in soil laboratory of Cranfield University for 300 calibration and validation soilsamples collected from the experimental fields. The upgrade of Cranfield calibration models will be based on chemometrictools consisting of a combination of principal component analyses (PCA) and partial least squares regression (PLSR)analysis to be carried out with Unscrambler 7.8 software (Camo Inc.; Oslo, Norway). Cranfield will also develop two typesof soil maps e.g. full-point and comparison maps using ArcGIS ArcMap (ESRI ArcGISTM version 10, CA, USA). Thecomparison maps will aim to compare between on-line predicted and laboratory measured soil properties. The full-pointmaps will be used for understanding and evaluation of within field variation in soil fertility, and how these are correlated withcrop growth and yield. By this, it is hoped to identify crop yield limiting factors.Cranfield team will be also responsible for data fusion and geostatistical analysis. Data fusion will include artificial neuralnetwork, support vector machine and other tools, as necessary. Data fusion will be carried out with STATISTICA 10(StatSoft, Inc. USA) software. An unsupervised classification algorithm will be employed to identify spatially similar classes.The clustering output will be imported into ArcGIS ArcMap (ESRI ArcGISTM version 10, CA, USA) to assist visualisationand spatial analysis. A homogenous set of management zones will be derived by using a moving-window filter to minimisethe occurrence of smaller clusters. This will be followed by the development of fertility maps for the experimental fields, withmanagement zones of each class having similar yield potential. After the fertility maps have been developed, Nrecommendation maps will be generated using RB209 (SEFRA), in collaboration with STC ltd., and agronomist Mr. PhilipEffingham.Cranfield will also assist STC Ltd. in the cost benefit analysis to evaluate the economic viability of the system. This analysiswill be based on input data obtained from the trial plots, comparing between subsurface homogeneous and variable rate Nfertilisation. Together with Manterra, Cranfield team will assess the technology integration, to allow for final evaluation ofthe system, and identify further technical and software development needed if any.Cranfield will also play an important role in the exploitation and dissemination of the results achieved. They will lead onpublishing scientific papers in top journals on precision agriculture e.g. Precision Agriculture, Biosyatems Engineering,Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, and top international and national conferences e.g. European Conference onPrecision Agriculture, HGCA Precision Agriculture Workshop and EurAgEng2016. The team will promote the on-line basedsubsurface variable rate N application system in trade workshops e.g. Cereals. They will also provide the needed input fortraining workshops organised by Manterra.