Site-specific management of agricultural inputs: an illustration for variable-rate irrigation
研究了变量灌溉中通过划分管理单元来应对土壤空间变异性的方法，分析了管理单元大小、灌溉均匀度和土壤性质对利润和用水决策的影响，发现精准农业和先进技术不一定能节水。
The efficiency of agricultural inputs may be reduced by ignoring the inherent variability in soil texture and the non-uniformity of the input's application. This paper focuses on variable-rate irrigation, which is performed via subdivision of the spatially variable field area into a controlled number of individually irrigated management units (MUs). The impact on profits and input decision of the MUs' size, the (technology-dependent) degree of irrigation uniformity, and the (cultivation-dependent) soil properties is investigated. A framework to evaluate the loss from imperfect information about the spatially random soil properties is developed and applied to sweet corn production. The analysis suggests that utilisation of site-specific farming and adoption of improved irrigation and/or cultivation technologies do not guarantee water saving. Copyright 2000 by Oxford University Press.