Evaluation of Soil Management Effect on Crop Productivity and Vegetation Indices Accuracy in Mediterranean Cereal-Based Cropping Systems.

Mostly, precision agriculture applications include the acquisition and elaboration of images, and it is fundamental to understand how farmers' practices, such as soil management, affect those images and relate to the vegetation index. We investigated how long-term conservation agriculture practices, in comparison with conventional practices, can affect the yield components and the accuracy of five vegetation indexes. The experimental site is a part of a long-term experiment established in 1994 and is still ongoing that consists of a rainfed 2-year rotation with durum wheat and maize, where two unfertilized soil managements were repeated in the same plots every year.

Nitrogen and chlorophyll status determination in durum wheat as influenced by fertilization and soil management: Preliminary results.

Handheld chlorophyll meters as Soil Plant Analysis Development (SPAD) have proven to be useful tools for rapid, no-destructive assessment of chlorophyll and nitrogen status in various crops. This method is used to diagnose the need of nitrogen fertilization to improve the efficiency of the agricultural system and to minimize nitrogen losses and deficiency. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of repeated conservative agriculture practices on the SPAD readings, leaves chlorophyll concentration and Nitrogen Nutrition Index (NNI) relationships in durum wheat under Mediterranean conditions.