Esporc S.A.

• Total project budget: 174.394,00€

• Start Date: 01/07/2020

  End Date: 30/09/2022

Technical advice increasingly needs new tools to make possible, on the one hand, to be able to integrate and take into account the existing variability in agricultural plots and, on the other, to facilitate decision-making. Precision farming techniques can be a tool to help this advice, but they need to be developed and adapted to our scientific, technical and social context; and transfer and disseminate it in order to expand its use between technicians and farmers.

The project aims to contribute to the creation of a new methodology for the management of crop fields through precision agricultural equipment, generating guidelines within the framework of the agricultural sector. The aim of the new management methodology is threefold: reducing the environmental impact, improving crop yields and improving resource efficiency.

From the project, it is expected:
– Obtain knowledge of the different characteristics of each plot through soil electrical conductivity sensors and performance monitors equipped with GPS positioning, as well as satellite images for obtaining vegetation and harvest maps.
– Improve the management of plots through a thorough knowledge of precision farming tools.
– Carry out different field tests in real conditions.
– Determine those strategies that can have a more favorable impact on reducing the levels of nutrients P and K in the soil, in line with the new Decree 153/2019.
– Create a Guide for the reduction of P and K contents in agricultural soils of extensive crops that is useful for different groups (administration, farmers, etc.).
– Carry out a strategy for applying livestock manure, using a NIR + GPS, as efficiently as possible. The applied technology will allow to define with precision the necessary nutrients in each part of the plot.

Project funded through Operation 16.01.01 (Cooperation for Innovation) through the Rural Development Program of Catalonia 2014-2020.

Order ARP / 133/2017, of 21 June, approving the regulatory bases for aid for cooperation for innovation through the promotion of the creation of operational groups of the European Association for Innovation in matter of agricultural productivity and sustainability and the realization of innovative pilot projects by part of these groups, and Resolution ARP / 1531/2019, of 28 May, by which summons the mentioned help.