​New tools for understanding crops: Measuring Soil Electrical Conductivity

The continuous search for increased agricultural productivity makes it necessary to collect more and more information and data about crops. As a central element, the soil must be known in detail. In some cases, even the grid sampling done in Precision Agriculture is not sufficient alone.

To know the areas in even greater detail, it is possible to use electronic sensors that capture data every few meters. One of the sensors that is beginning to be used to characterize the soil within a new phase of precision agriculture is the one that measures the electrical conductivity of the soil.

Soil electrical conductivity alone does not have agronomic significance, but is an indirect way of knowing the variations that exist in an area. Conductivity is directly related to texture and water storage capacity. It is also correlated, to a lesser extent, with other characteristics of soil physics.

The main advantages in measuring conductivity are the practicality of the process and the richness of details, as the measurement is made continuously, as the equipment passes over the ground and is dragged by a tractor or other vehicle. The data is collected directly by the equipment, without requiring analysis in the laboratory. There is no cost per analysis, the investment being made only in the equipment.

With this diagnosis, it is possible to generate a very detailed map of electrical conductivity, thus knowing the variability of the area every few meters. It is an excellent tool for precision agriculture work, which, precisely, provides for the localized treatment of areas according to the existing characteristics. Afterwards, it is possible to carry out targeted soil sampling according to the variability found. Or, depending on the farm's reality, direct investments in precision agriculture to less uniform areas.

Due to its relationship with water availability, recent work also points to the use of conductivity measurement as one of the tools to guide plantings with variable seed populations to make the most of the potential of each part of the crops.

As a new tool that generates a set of data with great detail, new applications in addition to those already known should emerge in the coming years as the technology spreads, generating even more information for crop management. As a new technology, it comes to add information, not being a substitute for already consolidated tools such as soil sampling.

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