Use of the regularities of within-field variability of arable soil fertility in precision agrotechnologies

The paper states regularities of the within-field variation of soil fertility which are important for variable rate fertilizer application under conditions of precision agrotechnologies inclusive the technologies limiting agroeconomic efficiency. As is well known the usual (traditional) fertilizer practice stipulates their application taking into account averaged indices of soil fertility: mobile plant food elements (N, P, K etc.) content in the plow layer. At the same time a part of the plants gets excess of mineral nutrition, and other part - its deficiency. That results in shortage of agricultural products, its deterioration and also the pollution of the environment and the soil with the excesses of agrochemicals in overfertilized plots. In the last decades traditional technologies give place to high-precision agrotechnologies with differentiated fertilizer application taking into account within-field heterogeneity of soil fertility. There are several constraints for widespread adoption of high-precision agrotechnologies inclusive an underestimation of the character of within-field variability of soil quality. Our investigations reveal eight regularities of the within-field variation of agrochemical indices, which characterize soil fertility in arable soils. These regularities would allow more seriously estimate the efficiency of variable rate fertilizer application under conditions of precision agrotechnologies.