The NationalRegional System of Field Experiments for Modern Agriculture

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The National\Regional System of Field Experiments
for Modern Agriculture

• Professor Victor A. Semenov, Agrophysical
  Research Institute and
• Dr. Vladislav B. Minin, North West Research
  Institute of Agricultural Mechanization and
  Electrification
• St.-Petersburg, Russia

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The World needs in food are growing. That is why
the task to increase food production is becomes
of vital importance.

• There are great objective difficulties for the
  task achievement, such as
• climate warming,
• a lack of fresh water,
• deficiency of power resources,
• complex environmental problems.

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Positive features

• Presence of various high-efficiency techniques,
• Fine varieties of cultivated plants and races of
  animal,
• New kinds of highly effective fertilizers and
  pesticides and
• Easy availability of computers and satellite
  orientation.

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For this reason the scientific preconditions
should be created for formation of agricultural
systems

• They would provide a counteraction to global and
  local negative influences as well as maximal use
  of natural conditions and technical opportunities
  of manufacture.
• The most effective system of land use for each
  facilities will be developed.
• The system would present the technological
  scheme for each field and crop which would allow
  to use the genetic potential of variety as well
  as level of soil fertility, farm material and
  technical resources most full, and to guarantee
  Environmental safety.

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Requirement for New calculation systems and
software for development of concrete agricultural
projects for a separate facilities and a sites
with their specific features

• All necessary data, for calculations, should
  appear in the systems and programs and first of
  all characteristics of landscapes and soils.
• Correlations of these characteristics with crop
  productivity, interrelations between
  characteristics and technological actions
  influence on them should be estimated.

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Classification of heterogeneity of landscapes and
soils.

• Scientific base Stability of heterogeneity in
  time.
• Four categories of heterogeneity are allocated

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Four categories of heterogeneity are allocated
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Classification has hierarchical structure

• The heterogeneity of the first category
  influences the estimation of the heterogeneity
  the second category, and it , in turn - on
  occurrence and agronomical value of heterogeneity
  of third category. But all these irregularities
  related to the concrete object, will be shown
  and be estimated differently at various climatic
  conditions.
• It finishes hierarchy of heterogeneity and
  allows building corresponding hierarchical
  sequence of systems of experiments.

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• The National system of experiments
  (balance experiments, agroclimatic and
  agroenvironmental stationeries) is estimates
  distinctions in climatic conditions, is establish
  base parameters of productivity process (use of
  solar radiation, water consumption, consumption
  of nutrition elements and so on) and is define
  the limits of agriecosystem productivity.
• The Zone and Regional systems of
  experiments (landscape, cooperative, precision,
  comparative experiments) are differentiate the
  parameters mentioned above, establish and
  estimate influence of geomorphological and soil
  conditions on crop productivity, develop
  specifications for designing of agricultural
  crops cultivation technologies, promote
  optimization of structure of crops, etc.
• Specialized interzonal systems will be
  organized for research in specific tasks, for
  example, meadow cultivation, cultivation of flax
  or potatoes through all country.

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The organizational basis of systems are as
follows

•         Centralized planning of experiments,
•         Unity of techniques and methods of data
  processing.

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The general objective of these experiments

•         Realization of stated above statement
  about necessity of methodical and normative
  maintenance of new systems of agriculture and
  technologies, as we believe that to make it on
  the basis of current experiments is impossible
  because of impossibility of the polynominal
  account on small number of samples of
  supervision.

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Section landscape experiments

•         There are three series mezo .
  micro.. and nano landscape. Mezo landscape
  experiments are intended for studying influence
  of a landscape position of crops of different
  cultures on their productivity, efficiency of
  technologies of different intensity on various
  elements of landscapes.
• Micro landscape experiments establish and
  estimate influence on crop productivity of
  heterogeneity in genesis and opportunities of
  technological impact on this influence. Influence
  on productivity of
• Nano landscape experiments are studied
  heterogeneity of soil according it granulometric
  content.

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Precision experiences

• are intended for an establishment of the
  statistical regularities connecting efficiency of
  fertilizers and pesticides with conditions of
  their application and allowing as the normative
  tool to calculate a dosage of fertilizers for the
  set crop yield with high accuracy

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The most important methodological position in
these experiments is changing of their purpose.

• Instead of a usual establishment of the best
  variant the hypothesis and the mathematical model
  constructed on its basis is verified here. Not
  less important and new feature of such
  experiments is that in them soil heterogeneity
  becomes the ally of the experimenter and even a
  necessary condition. Varying parameters of soil
  properties become the arguments of the model and
  from their big number the iterative account
  selects the most essential. The quantity of
  variants in experiment is defined by structure of
  model and number of arguments used in it. In the
  project of our experiment with phosphoric
  fertilizers it is stipulated three blocks (sites
  with phosphorus content in soil equal to 50, 150
  and 300 mg/kg of soil) with total number of
  variants 174. The establishment of experiment
  with such quantity of variants is carried out on
  transect

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The cooperative experiments, that designed by an
uniform technique in different conditions, are
specially intended for revealing and an
explanation of mutual relations in soil -
weather - technologies crop system.

• In them the same four-variants scheme, as well as
  in landscape experiments is used.
• For result processing reception of " logic
  tree by means of which combinations of
  conditions and technologies consistently are
  established, from the best up to the most bad.
• The substantial analysis of this sequence allows
  to reveal the reasons of distinctions in results
  of weather and soil conditions on expediency of
  use of technologies of different intensity.
• The organising of such experiments with three
  grain crops on six experimental fields of the
  Northwest zone of Russia has shown rather high
  efficiency and selfdescriptiveness.

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Conclusions.

• 1.      For obtaining sustainable crop yield in
  long perspective at changing World the new
  approach of applied research is needed.
• 2.      Field experiment is the main tool of many
  agricultural sciences and researchers. But it,
  alone, produces data that are not possible to
  spread on big area or in a future. Moreover,
  obtaining of reliable information from field
  experiments became more and more expensive.
  
• 3.      The new system of field experiments is
  offered. It may be realized at one big country,
  or on the international base at the big region.
  The system allows obtaining of valuable
  information that may be used for technologies
  adaptation and many other means more rapidly. But
  such research has to be cooperative.