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Spatiotemporal normalized ratio methodology to evaluate the impact of field-scale variable rate application

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Abstract

Wide assimilation of precision agriculture among farmers is currently dependent on the ability to demonstrate its efficiency at the field-scale. Yet, most experiments that compare variable-rate vs uniform application (VRA and UA) are performed in strips, concentrated in a small portion of the field with limited extrapolation to the field scale. A spatiotemporal normalized ratio (STNR) methodology is proposed to evaluate the impact of VRA compared with UA for on-farm trials at the field scale. It incorporates a base year in which the whole plot is managed with UA and consecutive years in which half of the plot is managed with UA and the other half is managed with VRA. Additionally, a novel normalized relative comparison index (NRCI) is presented where the ratios of VRA/UA sub-plots are compared between a base year and a consecutive year, for any measured parameter. The NRCI determines the impact of VRA on variability using statistical measures of dispersion (variability measures) and on performance with statistical measures of central tendency (performance measures). Variability measures with NRCI values lower or higher than 1 indicate VRA management decreased or increased variability. Performance measures with NRCI lower or higher than 1 indicate subplot impairment or improvement, respectively due to VRA management. The methodology was demonstrated on a commercial drip irrigated peach orchard and a wine grape vineyard. NRCI results showed that VRA drip irrigation reduced water status in-field variability but did not necessarily increase yield. The benefits and limitations of the proposed design are discussed.

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Abbreviations

CWSI:

Crop water stress index

MC:

Management cell

NRCI:

Normalized relative comparison index

PA:

Precision agriculture

PAS:

Precision agriculture system

PM:

Performance measure

STNR:

Spatiotemporal normalized ratio

SWP:

Stem water potential

TSS:

Total soluble solids

UA:

Uniform application

VM:

Variability measure

VRA:

Variable rate application

VRDI:

Variable rate drip irrigation

WP:

Water productivity

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the peach grower, Shlomo Cohen, for collaborating and allowing the research to be conducted in his orchard; Reshef Elmakais, Tomer Hagai, Shai Levi, Suliman Farhat, Omer Levi, Ishai Gilad, Ohad Masad, and Shlomi Kfir for field measurements and technical support; Datamap company for imagery acquisition and mosaicking. Additionally, the authors would like to thank the team of Carmel Wineries, Avi Yehuda and Dror Dotan for their collaboration and assistance at Mevo Beitar vineyard and particularly thank Ben Hazut, Matan Golomb and Doron Kleimann for assisting in the field measurements. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for their constructive comments.

Funding

This research is a part of The “Eugene Kendel” Project for Development of Precision Drip Irrigation funded via the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Israel (Grant No. 20–12-0030). The project has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Project SHui, Grant Agreement No. 773903.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Rishon-LeZion, 50250, Israel

    L. Katz, I. Bahat, V. Alchanatis & Y. Cohen

  2. Department of Soil and Water Sciences, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O.B. 12, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel

    L. Katz

  3. Department of Precision Agriculture, MIGAL Galilee Research Institute, P.O.B. 831, Kiryat Shmona, 11016, Israel

    L. Katz, M. I. Litaor & A. Naor

  4. Environmental Physics and Irrigation, Agricultural Research Organization, Gilat Research Center, M.P. Negev, 85280, Israel

    L. Katz & A. Ben-Gal

  5. Department of Environmental Sciences, Tel Hai College, Upper Galilee, 1220800, Israel

    M. I. Litaor

  6. Northern R&D Center, MIGAL Galilee Research Institute, P.O.B. 831, 11016, Kiryat Shmona, Israel

    M. Peres

  7. The Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, 7610001, Israel

    I. Bahat

  8. Department of Chemical Engineering, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel

    Y. Netzer

  9. Department of Agriculture and Oenology, Eastern R&D Center, Ariel, 40700, Israel

    Y. Netzer

  10. TerraVision Lab, P.O.B. 225, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, 8499000, Israel

    A. Peeters

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  1. L. Katz
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Correspondence to L. Katz.

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This paper is an expansion of the ECPA 2021 conference proceedings full paper entitled “Methodology for comparison between uniform and variable rate application in a drip-irrigated peach orchard”.

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Katz, L., Ben-Gal, A., Litaor, M.I. et al. Spatiotemporal normalized ratio methodology to evaluate the impact of field-scale variable rate application. Precision Agric 23, 1125–1152 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-022-09877-4

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