Use of the farmer’s experience variable in the generation of management zones

Abstract

In the spatial variability management of fields, the approach based on management zones (MZs) divides the area into sub-regions, which have spatially homogeneous topography and soil conditions. Such MZs should lead to the same potential yields. Farmers understand which areas of a field have high and low yields, and use of this knowledge may allow the identification of MZs in a field based on production history. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the application of farmer's experience to determine MZs. The study was conducted in three agricultural fields located in the west of the Paraná State in Brazil, and the MZs were generated considering three cases: a) without the use of the farmer's experience variable; b) with the variable of farmer's experience and the stable soil properties selected at the variable selection stage; and c) only with the farmer's experience variable. The generated MZs were evaluated using the Variance Reduction (VR) index, Fuzziness Performance Index (FPI), Modified Partition Entropy (MPE), Smooth Index (SI), and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The study showed that the use of farmer's experience to set MZs could be an efficient and simple tool, that it could reduce costs for the processes of setting MZs, compared to the traditional method of using stable soil variables and relief. Key words: Precision agriculture. Clustering. Farmer feeling. Management units. ResumoNo gerenciamento da variabilidade espacial das lavouras a abordagem baseada em zonas de manejo (ZMs) divide o talhão em sub-regiões, que apresentam topografia e condições do solo espacialmente homogêneas, de tal forma que tais ZMs devem conduzir aos mesmos resultados em potencial de rendimento das culturas. Os produtores têm experiência de quais áreas de um talhão apresentam altas e baixas produtividades e fazer uso dessa base de conhecimento pode permitir a identificação de ZMs em um campo com base no histórico de produção. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar a eficiência de utilização da experiência do produtor na definição de ZMs. A pesquisa foi realizada em três áreas agrícolas localizadas na região Oeste do estado do Paraná/ Brasil e as ZMs foram geradas considerando

Use of Farmer Knowledge in the Delineation of Potential Management Zones in Precision Agriculture: A Case Study in Maize (Zea mays L.)

“…Few studies, however, have specifically addressed the use of farmers' knowledge for that purpose. Schenatto et al [28] evaluated the application of farmers' experience to determine management zones in soybean fields. They found that the use of farmers' experience could be an efficient and simple tool that could reduce costs in comparison with the traditional method of using stable soil variables and relief.…”

GeoFIS: An Open Source, Decision-Support Tool for Precision Agriculture Data

“…This is an important consideration as these data come with a lot of associated knowledge that has to be considered when processing these data. More specifically, a lot of local expertise to support decision-making might be available as users, e.g., farmers, advisors and/or technicians, have normally been scouting the fields during all the growing season [21][22][23]. Site-specific management also requires the use of agricultural machinery with specific characteristics that have to be considered in these processing functions.…”