ABSTRACT
Site-specific management must be conducted based on a clear understanding of within/between-field variability of soil characteristics, which is encouraging the development of soil sensing/scanning technologies and mapping strategies (Figure 3.1). There are three stages with different strategies: uniform management over the field in Stage 1, within-field variable management in Stage 2, and variable management of hierarchical variability in Stage 3. Hierarchical variability implies here the variability in different scales, such as scales of microscopic soil structure, individual growing plants, land for cropping or cultivation systems, and geographical patterns. Technological innovation drives the shift of stages, and today precision farming is stepping into Stage 2, providing new devices/sensors and methodology. Moreover the shift of stages brings a large amount of data sampled/scanned from the field, which enriches information and knowledge for agronomic implication.
