Shining Light on Digital Agriculture: Linking Soil NIR measurements, Fertility, and Crop Yields

Term: 3 years, beginning in 2020

Status: Ongoing

Funding Amount: $82, 829

Lead Researcher(s): Dr. Derek Peak (University of Saskatchewan)

Funding Partners: Agriculture Development Fund - Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission

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Project Description

Currently the commercial soil testing is reliant on methods that are not compatible with modern emphasis on large datasets and rapid sensing. Spectral-based NIR sensing systems have the potential to reduce per-sample analysis costs by more than 90%, while producing near-instantaneous results in the field. The main goal of this project is to develop methodology to link field NIR data and laboratory analyses by combining the large datasets and advanced data processing techniques with a novel FT-NIR field probe. This field probe contains all the optics in the soil probe tip for higher spectral quality. Once the field NIR analysis methodology is developed, the results will be combined with the spatially resolved digital soil maps and geo-referenced crop yield and crop quality measurements from harvest, which will be further evaluated to see whether yield potentials (and thus fertilizer recommendations) can be effectively mapped directly using NIR spectra of soils.Benefits include more productive farmlands, higher nutrient use efficiencies, climate-smart agriculture (due to the ability to monitor and manage soil organic carbon throughout the field) and improvements in the sustainability of agricultural practices in western Canada.