Geostatistics and proximal soil sensing for sustainable agriculture

Abstract

Geostatistical tools coupled with proximal soil sensing data are of great importance for sustainable agriculture. They allow to have fine-scale information about key soil properties and consequently know where, when, and how much agricultural inputs should be added to soil to maximize the productivity, minimize costs, and reduce the environmental impact. Proximal soil sensors can be used for laboratory, in situ and on-line measurement conditions. This is fast, cost-effective, easy, and does not require expert operators to perform the analyses. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the use of geostatistical techniques and proximal soil sensing data for achieving sustainable agriculture goals. Brief explanation of geostatistics and its applications as well as proximal soil sensors classifications were provided. A particular emphasis was given to the on-the-go platforms, especially a visible and near-infrared online platform. This chapter also shows several studies that were carried out by various researchers on the data fusion between proximal soil sensing data and geostatistical tools to detect the spatial and temporal variations of soil parameters. Once the soil variation was detected, variable rate technology can be applied.