Project Report

Topic: SPATIAL VARIABILITY ANALYSIS OF CROP &

SOIL PROPERTIES WITHIN A FIELD
Supervisor:
Sir Jahanzaib Cheema Sb
Submitted to:
Sir Numan Sb
Submitted by:
Humna Khan (2013-ag-4455)
Aleena Tariq (2013-ag-4473)
Muhammad Hassan (2013-ag-4493)
Semester: 8th
Section: AEB-2
Degree: B.Sc Agri. Engg.
Faculty of Agriculture Engineering &
Technology, UAF.
 SPATIAL VARIABILITY ANALYSIS OF CROP &
SOIL PROPERTIES WITHIN A FIELD
Abstract:
Knowledge of soil spatial variability and relationship among soil properties is
important for the evaluation of agricultural land management practices. The
objective of this study is to examine the spatial variability of crop & soil properties
and factors contributing to the general pattern of variability in Faisalabad.
Observations were carried out from yield data collected from sampling points and
soil samples were collected for laboratory analysis. The factors (textural
characteristics, chemical properties, organic matter etc.) involved in variability of
crop and soil properties were studied.

Introduction:
Soil management systems play an important role in sustainable agriculture and
environmental qualities. Management practices have greater effect on the
direction and degree of changes in soil properties. Soil management systems such
as soil tillage, fertilizers, and extreme irrigation often create unsuitable changes in
soil quality. Most researches on the spatial variability in field are mainly
concentrated in precision agriculture for years. However, because of the
complexity of crop growing conditions and the difference in crop production
within every field, the spatial variability of soil properties that affect especially
crop yield should be studied in every field, and the rational sampling interval and
sampling density should also be identified.

It has been reported for at least 70 years that fields are not homogeneous and
sampling techniques to describe field variability have been recommended.
Describing the spatial variability across a field has been difficult until new
technologies such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) were introduced. GIS is a powerful set of tools for
collecting, storing, retrieving, transforming and displaying spatial data.
These test data can be finally used to create the spatial variability maps of soil
properties in estimation quality depends on reliable interpolation techniques that
can be used for obtaining soil property values at unsampled locations. Local
interpolation techniques commonly used in agricultural applications include IDW,
Spline and Kriging.

Materials and Methods:

It includes study area, crop yield data, soil sampling, laboratory analysis, statistical
analysis and geo-statistical analysis.

Study Area: Soil Sampling, Laboratory Analysis:

Study area was selected in PARS muraba no. 16 located on Jhang road Faisalabad.
It was divided into 30х30𝑚2 grids. There were four grids in one acre.

Crop Yield Data:

Yield data was collected by placing 1×1𝑚2 frame at the center of each grid and
made them in bundles.
About 10 plants were selected randomly from each sample. Measured the plant
height and spike length of each plant and calculated their average. Then we
weighted the dry mass and grains after threshing of each sample.

Table:

Grid Average Plant Average Spike Weight of Collected Weight of Wheat

No. Height/𝒎𝟐 Length/𝒎𝟐 Sample/𝒎𝟐 Grains/𝒎𝟐
(inch) (inch) (grams) (grams)
1. 40.2 7.2 950 300
2. 44.2 8.5 1000 250
3. 37.2 7.7 650 250
4. 40.4 7.8 600 150
5. 40.6 7.5 800 300
6. 40.6 7.6 700 200
7. 40.9 7.9 800 250
8. 40.5 7.7 950 350
9. 40.0 7.8 550 200
10. 42.6 7.8 800 250
11. 42.4 7.5 1000 350
12. 41.5 6.6 1200 500
13. 40.6 7.2 850 350
14. 37.4 6.5 900 300
15. 33.0 6.6 850 250
16. 39.9 7.1 850 250
17. 38.1 6.7 1000 350
18. 41.0 6.5 800 300
19. 35.6 6.3 750 300
20. 38.0 7.1 900 350
21. 33.5 6.9 1200 450
22. 39.7 6.8 900 250
23. 38.9 6.1 1000 300
24. 38.5 6.8 1250 400
25. 33.4 6.2 750 250
26. 42.3 6.6 1050 200
27. 35.7 6.5 1000 350
28. 37.2 6.5 950 300
29. 32.7 6.9 1000 400
30. 38.4 6.5 650 200
31. 37.9 7.1 600 200
32. 37.4 6.5 700 200
33. 44.7 6.0 900 300
34. 36.6 7.5 1000 350
35. 37.1 6.9 950 250
36. 38.2 7.3 700 250
37. 37.9 6.8 700 200
38. 43.9 6.9 750 200
39. 36.3 5.9 750 250
40. 40.3 6.9 900 300
41. 39.7 6.1 850 300
42. 34.2 6.9 850 300
43. 41.6 7.1 500 115
44. 32.9 6.8 600 200
45. 37.5 7.7 850 200
46. 36.2 7.0 800 250
47. 37.8 7.2 800 300
48. 30.7 6.3 550 200
49. 40.8 6.6 850 300
50. 38.0 6.8 550 200
51. 37.1 6.2 750 200
52. 36.7 6.1 750 300
53. 39.9 6.9 950 300
54. 33.9 6.8 600 200
55. 34.7 6.6 700 200
Soil Sampling & Laboratory Analysis:

Soil samples will be collected at a depth of 0-20 cm from each grid of that specific
area. Laboratory analysis will be done to determine the nitrogen, phosphorus,
potassium, particle size fraction, soil pH, organic matter content, exchangeable
potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium and cat ion exchange capacity (CEC).

Statistical Analysis:

Data is analyzed statistically. Classical descriptors are determined such as mean,

maximum, minimum, standard deviation and skewness of data distribution. The
descriptive statistics of the soil data is used for geo-statistical analysis.

Geo-statistical Analysis:

Spatial variations with interdependence are commonly described with a

variogram (Warrick et. al. 1986). In geo-statistics, the concept of variance from
classic statistics is extended to semi-variance. Considering a transect with equally
spaced samples and measurements of soil property Z, a set of values Z(𝑥1 ),
Z(𝑥2 )…….Z(𝑥𝑛 ) at location 𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … … … 𝑥𝑛 are obtained. The semi variance γ(h)
is estimated as:
1
γ(h) = ∑𝑁(ℎ)
𝑖=1 [𝑍(𝑥𝑖 ) − 𝑍(𝑥𝑖 + ℎ]
2 [1]
2𝑁(ℎ)

Where,

γ(h) = Experimental semi variogram value at distance interval h,

N(h) = Number of sample value pairs within the distance interval h,

Z(𝑥𝑖 ) = Measured sample value at point i,0

Z(𝑥𝑖 + ℎ) = Measured sample value at point (i+h).

A semivariogram, which graphs the semi variance between spatially separate data
points as a function of the distance is well documented to illustrate the spatial
relationship of soil properties. In addition to indicating the spatial pattern, the
modeled semivariogram can then be used in kriging interpolation.

The best fitted model then is used for kriging to interpolate unsampled locations.
The kriging uses a linear combination of the observations to make unbiased
predictions of unsampled values with minimum error variance. For better fitting,
the model data frequency distribution is compared to a normal distribution. The
skewness and kurtosis coefficients are often used to describe the shape of data
distribution. An absolute value of either coefficient is greater than 2, the
distribution is considered as either skewed or kurtosis. A significant positive
skewness coefficient indicates a long left tail. A significant positive kurtosis
coefficient shows a peaked distribution, a negative coefficient shows a flat
distribution.

The factors affecting IDW precision is the number of the closest samples used for
estimation. Cross-validation technique may be used to compare the results
obtained with different number of the closest samples. For Spline method, thin-
plate smoothing Spline is constructed based on a tradeoff between goodness of
fit and smoothness.

Conclusion:
The statistical analysis of the data sets is performed for N, P and K data. Kriging
only considered the relativity of the data, it didn’t only consider the random city
of the soil property, but also considered the structure of the soil property. The
spatial distribution map of soil moisture by Kriging can analyze the spatial
distributing status of all the cropland. Getting a veracious spatial distribution map
of soil water property is very important and useful for adjusting precision
fertilization and precision irrigation in time. It also offered the theoretical
foundation of the connection studying between soil water property and
enhancing the yield.

When using spatial interpolation methods, it should choose the best method to
get the most perfect effect of the spatial interpolation, the precondition is
comparing the experimentations with the different actual instance of the
experimental cropland and analyzing the actual metrical data of the sampling
points adequately. The most importance was improving on interpolation
methods, putting forward a new better scientific interpolation based on existing
foundation.