Precision agriculture (PA) aims to provide data on soil, nutrient use, irrigation, and crops, to guide management strategic decisions towards an efficient use of inputs, increasing production and avoiding environmental problems due to excessive accumulation of fertilizers. In this paper, PA data from a large Portuguese farm producing maize were used to assess the effectiveness of agronomic management decisions concerning fertilizer and nutrient use, seed choice, and water content, in terms of crop productivity. The maize yield in 2017 and 2018 was modelled as a function of manageable inputs and unmanageable factors introduced as control variables. Panel spatial econometric methods were used for specification and estimation, to control for spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity. The model proved to fit the data remarkably well and could be a good reference for specifying models to explain maize production; thus, helping researchers who need to deal with the huge amount of data that normally originates from PA. Additionally, it can be considered another tool for farm managers, helping in the design and evaluation of their agronomic management decisions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.