Use Of Crop Model And Seasonal Weather Forecasts For Optimizing Wheat N Fertilization: Preliminary Results Of The Ager Project

Nitrogen (N) fertilization on wheat crops has been commonly applied based on the maximization of yield production of high quality. However, spatial variability of the field fertility, which can be measured by remote sensors, has been rarely taken into account. When the amount and availability of soil nitrogen (N) varies, a precision N management approach should be applied (Pierce and Nowak, 1999) aimed at optimizing fertilizer inputs while reducing within-field yield variability. The development of a system for the in-season prediction of the quantitative-qualitative characteristics of the production based on the coupling of crop models with seasonal weather forecasts and remote sensing represents a great opportunity to achieve this goal by adjusting N fertilization, reducing over-fertilization costs and increasing farmers’ profits. Developing such a system is the main aim of the project AGER Trasferimento Tecnologico. Here we report some preliminary results concerning the calibration of the crop simulation model and its ability of reproducing the spatial variability observed during the current growing season. Based on model simulations and seasonal weather forecast, prescription maps of the nitrogen quantity to be provided were calculated and distributed.