Search

Phenological monitoring is a necessary part of crop production. Fertilization, plant care measures, irrigation scheduling and plant protection are closely related in their efficiency to timely and precise determination of certain phenological phases of the cultivated plants to ensure the best out pay of the technological operations. Phenological observations are usually time-consuming and require some extra expenditures due to the need to visit each field of a farm or agricultural holding and cross it several times to assess the growth and development of the cultivated plants on the large scale. Modern technologies, mainly remote sensing, provide an opportunity to estimate crops development both on the scale of a local field or whole farm in time-saving and cost-effective manner through vegetation indices. The purpose of this study was to determine the correspondence between the values of the normalized difference vegetation index and phenological phases of drip irrigation rice, cultivated in the south of Ukraine during 2016-2017, to ensure the possibility of remote phenological monitoring in such crops. As a result, the highest values of the vegetation index were determined to be recorded in the tillering-heading period, and usually coincides with the period of July. The determined rice vegetation patterns are not only for rice growers due to time and cost savings for crop phenological monitoring, but are also of great importance for intelligent agriculture in the sense of crop recognition automation and mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of plowing depth (20-22; 28-30 cm), mineral fertilization rates (N-P: 0-0, 60-60, 120-120 kg ha-1), and crops density (35,000, 50,000, 65,000, 80,000 plants ha-1) on the yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) of drip-irrigated sweet corn were studied. The field experiment was conducted in the semi-arid climatic conditions of the South of Ukraine (Kherson oblast) at the dark-chestnut middle-loamy soil. The trials were conducted using split-plot design in four replications. Irrigation scheduling and rates were set by the field water balance method considering the amounts of available soil moisture and precipitation. Manual harvesting of the crop ears was conducted at R3 phenological stage. WUE was calculated as the ratio of the ears' yield to the gross water use of the crop. Statistical evaluation was performed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis at the probability level of 95%. The studied factors and their interaction had a significant effect on sweet corn productivity and WUE. The best crop productivity along with the best WUE was provided by plowing on 20-22 cm, fertilization rates of 120-120 kg ha-1, and crops density of 65,000 plants ha-. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the world population requires an increase in food production. Its solution requires the introduction of advanced technologies, including automated irrigation systems. Commercially available smart irrigation systems are not widespread because of their high cost. A low-cost smart irrigation system based on satellite monitoring is proposed to schedule irrigation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the smart irrigation system during five-year field experiments. Water-use productivity, irrigated water-use productivity, and payback period were used as indicators to evaluate the low-cost irrigation system. This study was carried out for four crops: wheat, corn, sunflower, and rapeseed. The results obtained were compared to conventional irrigation systems. The experiments were designed at five farms locations. Their results showed that average water-use productivity rose from 4.09% (wheat) to 9.8% (sunflower). An increase in yields varied from 5.72% (wheat) to 13.42% (corn). Corn had a maximum yield deviation (26.72%). The payback period depended on the crop variety and the plot area. The payback period for wheat production under the proposed system was the longest (up to 82 months). Payback periods for corn, sunflower, and rapeseed production were shorter (from 3 to 12 months). Therefore, the smart irrigation system provides advantages and can be recommended as a low-cost solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]