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Precision nitrogen management of wheat. A review

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Abstract

Conventional farming has led to extensive use of chemicals and, in turn, to negative environmental impacts such as soil erosion, groundwater pollution and atmosphere contamination. Farming systems should be more sustainable to reach economical and social profitability as well as environmental preservation. A possible solution is to adopt precision agriculture, a win–win option for sustaining food production without degrading the environment. Precision technologies are used for gathering information about spatial and temporal differences within the field in order to match inputs to site-specific field conditions. Here we review reports on the precision N management of wheat crop. The aims are to perform an investigation both on approaches and results of site-specific N management of wheat and to analyse performance and sustainability of this agricultural practice. In this context, we analysed literature of the last 10–15 years. The major conclusions are: (a) before making N management decisions, both the measurement and understanding of soil spatial variability and the wheat N status are needed. Complementary use of different sensors has improved soil properties assessment at relatively low cost; (b) results show the usefulness of airborne images, remote and proximal sensing for predicting crop N status by responsive in-season management approaches; (c) red edge and near-infrared bands can penetrate into higher vegetation fraction of the canopy. These narrowbands better estimated grain yield, crop N and water status, with R 2 higher than 0.70. In addition, different hyperspectral vegetation indices accounted for a high variability of 40–75 % of wheat N status; (d) various diagnostic tools and procedures have been developed in order to help wheat farmers for planning variable N rates. In-season adjustments in N fertilizer management can account for the specific climatic conditions and yield potential since less than 30 % of spatial variance could show temporal stability; (e) field studies in which sensor-based N management systems were compared with common farmer practices showed high increases in the N use efficiency of up to 368 %. These systems saved N fertilizers, from 10 % to about 80 % less N, and reduced residual N in the soil by 30–50 %, without either reducing yields or influencing grain quality; (f) precision N management based on real-time sensing and fertilization had the highest profitability of about $5–60 ha−1 compared to undifferentiated applications.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Prof. Louis E. Keiner, PhD Stanislaw Samborski and Prof. Urs Schmidhalter for giving us the permission to reproduce their figures in this review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agriculture—Environmental and Land Sciences, University of Bari, Via Amendola 165/a, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Mariangela Diacono & Pietro Rubino

  2. Research Unit for the Study of Cropping Systems, CRA-SSC, S.S. Jonica 106, Km 448.2, 75010, Metaponto, Italy

    Francesco Montemurro

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  1. Mariangela Diacono
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  2. Pietro Rubino
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  3. Francesco Montemurro
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Correspondence to Mariangela Diacono.

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Diacono, M., Rubino, P. & Montemurro, F. Precision nitrogen management of wheat. A review. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 33, 219–241 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-012-0111-z

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