Abstract
Precision seeding which exploits the variability of soil properties in the field, is one of the most important agrotechnological solutions for smart agriculture, making it possible to increase the agronomic and economic efficiency of the production of one of the world’s most popular crops—winter wheat. The aim of this work was to investigate the impact of the site-specific-seeding (SSS) method on winter wheat yield and its productivity parameters and economic benefits compared with the conventional uniform rate seeding (URS) method. The experimental studies were carried out in a 22.4 ha field, which was divided into 5 soil management zones (MZs) based on the measured apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) with an electromagnetic induction sensor. These included MZ1 representing the highest soil ECa zone, MZ2, MZ3, and MZ4 as the medium-high, medium, and medium-low zones, respectively, and finally MZ5 as the lowest ECa zone with the lightest soil texture. The studies were carried out using two seeding methods. Under the conventional URS method, the same seeding rate of 180 kg ha−1 was applied in all MZs, while under the precision SSS method different seeding rates ranging from 146 kg ha−1 (MZ1) to 214 kg ha−1 (MZ5) were applied. Results showed that the SSS method overcome the URS in providing higher average grain yield and its yield components (e.g., the number of ears per square meter, the number of grains per ear, and the weight of 1000 grains). A particularly strong effect of seeding methods was found in the poorest soil fertility zone MZ5, where a significant difference between SSS and URS was obtained concerning plant height, straw-to-grain ratio, number of grains per ear, weight of 1000 grains, and grain yield. The cost-benefit analysis showed that the SSS approach resulted in an 8.3% higher gross margin than the URS approach. Future research is necessary to validate the results obtained in a larger number of fields having different degrees of spatial variability.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by European Regional Development Fund (project No. 01.2.2-LMT-K-718-03-0041) under grant agreement with the Lithuanian Science Council (LMTLT).
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Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—original draft; Supervision; Funding acquisition, Project administration: EŠ, Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Visualization, Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing – original draft: MK, Methodology, Investigation, Writing—original draft: RK, Investigation, Data curation: BS, Investigation, Data curation, Visualization, Project administration: BI, Software, Visualization, Validation: NV, Investigation, Validation, Formal analysis: SD, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—review & editing: AMM.
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Egidijus, Š., Marius, K., Indrė, B. et al. Impact of soil electrical conductivity-based site-specific seeding and uniform rate seeding methods on winter wheat yield parameters and economic benefits. Precision Agric 24, 2438–2455 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-023-10047-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-023-10047-3