AgroNum™ uses generic, plot-specific, nitrogen response curves applicable to all grain bearing non-Fabaceae field-crops across Europe. Implemented as plot-specific N-fertilizer response curves, AgroNum™ thus provides both sustainable RDN N-grain target yields and their corresponding TUN N-fertilizer application rates. This approach to fertilizer management is very ergonomic for the user since only a minimal dataset is uploaded, and interoperable with all precision agriculture & in-season weather monitoring technologies.
Again, farmers need only indicate the plot’s centermost GPS coordinates, along with their target RDN nitrogen yield, or “offtake” ; the corresponding sustainable TUN N-fertilizer application rate will be recommended. And vice versa, a desired RDN N-fertilization rate triggers the corresponding sustainable TUN nitrogen-yield recommendation ;
This baseline AgroNum N-fertilizer response curve is deemed sustainable because it was generated by an AI algorithm calibrated against a database from which cropping schedules with nitrogen fertilizer use efficiencies either too low or too high were removed. This culling is universally recognized as conducive to SOM conservation, or even build-up on carbon-depleted soils.
Again, AgroNum™ is based on the widely recognized bimodality of SOC dynamics with respect to RUN N-fertilizer use efficiency (NfUE). To render this bimodality operational, a series of rational adjustments are proposed. The resulting plot specific sustainable yield references, rRSQ_RUN, can then be predicted using AgroNum™’s core AI boosting algorithm, and compared to observed RSQ_run to determine the sustainability of the cropping practice. Of the approximately 32 000 cropping practices screened across Europe, 10% or so were deemed sustainable as understood and retained as the training dataset. In the process, such N-fertilizer response curves are generated at the plot level using a novel concept - the N-fertilizer requirement of the cropping practice per se – a_AgroNum (aAgroNum).
