Abstract
Nitrogen (N) is crucial for plant nutrition and is often a limiting factor for biomass production that feeds humans and animals and contributes to energy and material use. N fertilization aims at a high N use efficiency, with a maximum of N input taken up by the crop. Otherwise, N losses to water and air will harm the environment and the climate. Farmers should adopt a well-balanced crop N management, and variable-rate fertilization enables adjusting N fertilization according to plant status and needs. For more than 20 years, sensor technologies have involved handheld devices supplemented with satellite technology. Today, the launch of the two twin satellites Copernicus Sentinel-2A/B has yielded a higher spectral and spatial resolution. These data can help improve N fertilization. In this chapter, we describe our steps to evaluate sensor and satellite technologies using field data collected under optimal conditions and including different stages of N fertilization. The close cooperation between remote sensing experts, soil scientists, agronomists, and practitioners was crucial for the success of the field experiments. Our findings yielded productivity maps that serve as a basis for N fertilization maps for use by commonly applied farm machinery.
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Financial support was provided by the “FATIMA” Project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 633945.
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Spiegel, H., Sandén, T., Essl, L., Vuolo, F. (2021). Toward Improved Nitrogen Fertilization with Precision Farming Based on Sensor and Satellite Technologies. In: Hamrita, T. (eds) Women in Precision Agriculture. Women in Engineering and Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49244-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49244-1_4
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