AgroCares contributed to the International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis (ISSPA) on June 18 in Wageningen with a soil session. AgroCares’ researchers and two independent researchers gave five presentations in a session titled ‘Use of NIR, MIR and XRF sensor technology in routine soil testing’. Next to the soil session, AgroCares was also present with a stand and gave a live demonstrations of the AgroCares Scanner. There was a great interest in both the presentations and the product demos.
AgroCares Soil Session
Use of sensor technology for soil testing opens a whole new window of opportunities and applications in the field. It is however a very new and different approach compared to current practices with traditional wet chemistry laboratories. AgroCares’ soil session gave answers to the following questions and contributed to a better understanding and acceptance of sensor technology in routine soil testing:
- What precision or accuracy of soil testing data do farmers need to achieve their defined goals?
- What sensor technology can measure which chemical bindings and how are these related to soil nutrient parameters? Is there a need for calibration studies?
- How to link sensor spectral information with soil nutrient status and how to make (local or global) prediction models robust and precise?
- How to compare precision of traditional laboratories with laboratories using sensor technology?
- What factors determine the acceptance of new concepts or tools for soil testing? How do farmers and advisors perceive the reports? What makes farmers implement the recommendations?
During the soil session presentations were given by AgroCares researchers Sam Sarjant, Peter van Erp, Christy van Beek, Herman Vedder, Mila Luleva, Thomas Terhoeven-Urselmans, as well as by Gerard Heuvelink from ISRIC and Geoffrey Holmes from The University of Waikato.
About ISSPA
The 16th International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis (ISSPA) took place from June 17 – June 20 in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Over 200 scientists, experts, professionals and students joined ISSPA to exchange knowledge and foster collaborations.
Read more about ISSPA at www.isspa2019.com