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A global bibliographic review of soil variability trends on arable land: An impetus to sustainable land management
27-39Views:10Crop production is significantly affected by soil properties under the influence of climate, management practices, and geographical location. Soil variability affects the development, quality, biochemical reactions, and heterogeneity of soil. The most recent research has focused on soil variability monitoring, highlighting the importance of soil testing. This review aimed at identifying global research trends and assessing soil testing in monitoring variability on arable land, based on the bibliographic method. Literature search in Scopus Database (2020-2023) yielded 8,898 documents, refined to 815 articles. VOSviewer 1.6.20 Software was used for analysing exported data. The results revealed a growing emphasis on monitoring soil variability, with key countries including India, United States of America (USA), China, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and Brazil. Funding mainly came from Asia, North America, and Europe. Common monitoring approaches included soil tests and remote sensing, focusing on organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, microorganisms, and soil moisture. However, digital illiteracy and high costs were major hindrances to using remote sensing and modern soil testing tools. The study suggests that whereas soil variability monitoring is essential for sustainable land management, development of affordable soil testing equipment and improved digital education are needed for its enhanced adoption.
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The Role and Significance of Soil Analyses in Plant Nutrition and Environmental Protection
3-8Views:237Hungary has a rich history of soil analyses and soil mapping. Our main tasks today are the preservation of soil fertility as well as balancing the goals of production and environmental protection. The main requirement of agricultural production is to adapt to ecological and economic conditions.
In a series of consultative meetings in the past seven years, representatives from Central and Eastern Europe have analyzed nutrient management practices in their respective countries. According to a joint memorandum agreed upon in 2000, in the countries awaiting accession, the quantity of nutrients used per hectare is considerably smaller than the Western-European usage targeted through special subsidies. The current low nutrient usage contradicts the principles of sustainability and that of the efficient use of resources, jeopardizing soil fertility.
In Hungary, the use of inorganic fertilizers underwent a dynamic development, which manifested itself in an almost tenfold usage growth between 1960 and 1985. This growth slowed down somewhat between 1985 and 1990 and then reduced dramatically after 1990, reaching record lows at the usage levels of the 60s. The nutrient supply has had a negative balance for the last 15 years.
The increasing and then decreasing usage trends can equally be detected in the domestic yield averages of wheat and corn as well as in the nutrient supply of soils. Yields were the largest when usage levels were the highest, and decreased thereafter. Draughts have also contributed to smaller yields. The dramatic decrease in the use of inorganic fertilizers when adequate organic fertilizers are lacking endangers our soils’ fertility.
About 50% of soils in Hungary are acidic. Acidity is mostly determined by soil formation, but especially on soils with a low buffering capacity, this acidity may intensify due to inorganic fertilizers. Sustainable agriculture requires the chemical improvement of acidic soils. According to their y1 values, the majority of our acidic soils need to be improved. This chemical soil remediation is required in 15% of the acidic soils, while it’s recommended for another 20% of these soils.
Results of the analyses conducted in the framework of the soil-monitoring system set up in Hungary in 1992 show that in 95% of the analyzed samples, the toxic element content is below the allowable limit. Cultivated areas are not contaminated; toxicity above the legal level was found only in specific high-risk sampling areas: in the vicinity of industry, due to local overload. The basic principle of sustainable agriculture is to preserve soil fertility without undue strain on the environment. The intensity of the production needs to be considered according to the conditions of the site; i.e.; nutrient management needs to be site-specific. It is recommended to differentiate three types of cultivated land in terms of environmental sensitivity: areas with favorable conditions, endangered areas, and protected areas, and then to adopt nutrient management practices accordingly. To meet all the above-mentioned goals is impossible without systematic soil analysis. Tests conducted by the national monitoring system cannot replace regular field measurements. -
SIM Samples Investigation by Statistical Methods
194-197Views:273The assessment of the present condition of the soil is very important, because the accession of the number of the European Union members is in the near future. This can be the base of the modern agrarian environmental management programme. The assessment must be objective, detailed and analyse the processes in the soil.
Respecting the above causes was decided to create an Environmental Information Monitoring System. This system consists of more parts. One of them is the Soil Information Monitoring System (SIM). This system started to work in 1992.
This system has two functions. Creating and actuation is obligatory from the international contracts, on the other hand the public SIM has very important role in the conservation of the soil.
The SIM territorial measuring grid consists of 1236 measuring points. These points are representatives. The distributions of the points by the types of soil attend the variety of the types of soil of the country.
The investigated elements in 6 types of soil were in our experiment (the group of scandium and the lanthanide series elements). There are 6 elements above the detection limit (Gadolinium, Neodymium, Praseodymium, Scandium, Samarium, Yttrium).
The Neodymium concentration is 2 times higher than the content of Gadolinium and Yttrium.
The Neodymium concentration is 4 times higher than the content of Praseodymium, Scandium and Samarium.
In the case of Dysprosium, Europium, Lutetium, Terbium, Ytterbium the concentrations were below 1 mg/kg. -
Soil biological challenges in our age
193-196Views:235The paper deals with the soil biological research and its contribution to the changed cropping strategy and to the sustainable and environmentally friendly farming and management. The paper emphasizes the importance of biodiversity, as one of the most important ecological functions of soil. The organisms, populations and communities living in the soil play a key importance in the preservation of soil fertility. The most important research areas are presented dealing with in the last decades the national researchers and the challenges we face regarding the current soil biological problems. We have to prepare to examine the soil biological effectiveness of the more widely spread bio-preparations, bacterium preparations, and bioregulators. The prerequisites are the versatile knowledge of the biological state of soils and monitoring examination of the different effects soils had (including the mentioned preparations).
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Soil, nutrient, and fertiliser requirements for maize (Zea mays) production: A narrative review
85-97Views:719Maize (Zea mays) is a key staple crop essential for global food security, with its productivity heavily influenced by soil, nutrient, and fertiliser management. This review examines the requirements for optimal maize production by analysing recent literature on soil properties, nutrient uptake, and fertilisation practices. A systematic approach was used to gather relevant studies from Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science, focusing on peer-reviewed articles, books, and conference proceedings published in the last 10 years. Keywords such as “maize soil requirements” and “nutrient management for maize” guided the search, and both global and region-specific research were included to capture diverse agricultural systems and environments. Key insights were extracted to understand best practices, challenges, and technological advancements influencing maize yield. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge on soil and nutrient management for maize cultivation, highlighting optimal practices and emerging trends in fertilisation techniques. The review aims to support improved management strategies for yield maximisation and sustainable maize production across various agricultural landscapes, ensuring food security in the face of changing environmental conditions.
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The possibility of use of the 0,01 M CaCl2 and Baker- Amacher extractants for the determination of plantavailable potassium
7-15Views:160The Hungarian fertilizing recommendation systems use AL soil test for the evaluation of potassium supply. The 0.01 M CaCl2 is a definitely milder extractant, it extracts the easily soluble and exchangeable potassium amount. Its European introduction was already taken into consideration in 1994. The research project on this topic is started in several european countries, also in Hungary at the Department of Agricultural Chemisty of Agricultural University of Debrecen. Another advantage this multielement method is that the different element-ratios can also be calculated.
The Baker-Amacher extractant’s principle is that it contains a known amount of K, P, Mg in the CaCl2 solution. During the soil extraction adsorption and desorption process take place, so the adsorption or desorption can be calculated from the original and the final concentrations.
In this paper we introduce the results of comparing analysis of the samples (n=630) from Soil Information and Monitoring System. Our aim was to measure the use of new extractants beside conventional extractant (AL) for the evaluation of K-supply would be reasonable.
It can be stated that there is a medium close relationship (r=0.75) between AL-K and 0.01 M CaCl2-K. My calculations confirmed the results of former examinations, and proved that the two extractants don’t extract and change the same rate of K-fractions. We found that regression between 0.01 M CaCl2 and AL depend on texture classes, pH classes, amount of lime, and organic matter content of soils.
Comparing the relations between AL and Baker-Amacher we find relatively loose correlation (r=0.45). We stated that there are K-fixing soils among soils considered to be well supplied with potassium by AL. This might be caused by the high amount of mineral clay and the quality of mineral clay. We stated that the dK averages show that the Hungarian nutrient-supply categories characterize generally well K-supplement of soil.
It can be stated that it would be necessary to use new extractants to specify evaluation of plant available K. We found that the 0.01 M CaCl2 and Baker-Amacher extractants could complete usefully the AL procedure and could help effective potassium fertilization. -
Virtual Soil Information Systems in the Bihar Subregion and at Tedej Corp
186-189Views:285After evaluating the sample sites’ soils and environmental status, we built up 2 different soil information systems. The first relies on analog data (soil maps), and is based on a regional model; its sample site is the Bihar sub-region. The second is a complex, field scale virtual 3D system, based on several types of data sources. (Aerial photos, GPS, field samples, hyper and multispectral images, soil maps). In this paper, we analyze and evaluate these systems. The greatest advantage of the models is that, with their usage, we can reveal connections which cannot be made by analyzing the individual elements of our data sources. We discovered that with the help of our systems, the monitoring and evaluating of the processes taking place in the soil is more fast and simple.
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Comparative analysis of sample preparation methods to determine the concentration of arsenic in soil- and plant-samples
167-170Views:409Arsenic contamination of the fields and groundwater is a global problem. Alföld is the most affected area in Hungary. Irrigation witharsenic contaminated water, and crop production on the contaminated soil can cause a food safety problem, because arsenic is easy taken up by the cell of the plant roots. To prevent this, very important to monitoring the arsenic content of soils and plants. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a fast, easy method to determined the concentration of minerals in the case of plant and soil samples The analytical methods can give reliable, results if the analytical process, including the sample preparation method, is the best. The objective of this study was to compare 3 type of sample preparation method which was dry ashing, wet digestion in open system, and microwave digestion. As a result of our experiement shows the microwave digestion is the appropriate method to determined the arsenic content of soil samples. In the case of plant samples we can use wet digestion in open system or microwave digestion as a samle preparation method.
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Application of AquaCrop in processing tomato growing and calculation of irrigation water
183-187Views:468The area and volume of processing tomato production is increasing in Hungary. Irrigation is crucial for processing tomato growing. To save water and energy, it is important to know exactly how much water is needed to reach the desirable quality and quantity. AquaCrop is a complex software, developed by FAO, which is able to calculate irrigation water needs, several stress factors and to predict yields. A field experiment was conducted in Szarvas in processing tomato stands, under different irrigation treatments. These were the following: fully irrigated plot with 100% of evapotranspiration (ET) (calculated by AquaCrop), deficit irrigated plot with 50% of ET (D) and control (K) plot with basic water supply was also examined. Dry yield, crop water stress index and soil moisture were compared to modelled data. The yields in the plots with different access to water were not outstanding in the experiment. The model overestimated the yields in every case, but the actual and modelled yields showed good correlation. AquaCrop detected stomatal closure percentages only in the unirrigated plot. These values were compared to CWSI – computed from leaf surface temperature data, collected by a thermal cam in July – and showed moderately strong correlation. This result suggests that Aquacrop simulates water stress not precisely and it is only applicable in the case of water scarcity. Soil moisture data of the three plots were only compared by means. The measured and modeled data did not differ in the case of K and ET plots, but difference appeared in the D plot. The obtained results suggest that the use of AquaCrop for monitoring soil moisture and water stress has its limits when we apply the examined variables. In the case of dry yield prediction overestimation needs to be considered.
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Usage of different remote sensing data in land use and vegetation monitoring
7-12Views:288The use of remote sensing in forest management and agriculture is becoming more prominent. The rapid development of technology allowed the emergence of database suitable for precision application in addition to the previously used low-resolution and low data content images. The high resolution, hyperspectral images are not only suitable for separating the different land use categories and vegetation types but also for examining the soil characteristics and biophysical features of plants (Blackburn and Steel, 1999; Condit, 1970). We processed a multispectral satellite image (Landsat 7 ETM+) and a hypespectral areal image (DAIS 7915) about a farm on the plains and evaluated the different image classification methods. During our examinations, we examined the geometrical and radiometrical characteristics of images first, then assigning the training areas, we determined the spectral characteristics of land use categories. We performed a multispectral analysis for checking land use, where we compared controlled and uncontrolled classification systems to check their reliability. We used areal and spectral reductions to make the classifications more accurate and to reduce the length of calculations.
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Element content analyses in the Institute for Food Sciences, Quality Assurance and Microbiology
203-207Views:309The role of chemical elements to ensure and promote our health is undisputed. Some of them are essential for plants, animals and human, others can cause diseases. The major source of mineral constituents is food, drinking water has a minor contribution to it, so the knowledge of elemental intake through food is crucial and needs continuous monitoring and by this way it promotes the food quality assurance and dietetics.
With the evolution of spectroscopic methods increasingly lower concentrations could be determined, so the elemental composition of a sample could be more precisely and fully described. Due to the results the gathered knowledge up to the present is supported and new observations can be done helping us to understand such complex systems as biological organisms are.
The quality of a food is determined by the full process of its production, consequently it starts with agricultural production so elemental-analysis usually cover the whole soil – plant – (animal) – food chain, by this way the „Fork-to-Farm” precept is true in elemental analysis field also.
The history of elemental analysis in the University of Debrecen, Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management, Institute of Food Processing, Quality Assurance and Microbiology goes back to 1980s when the so called Regional Measurement Central gave the background for research. The continuous deployment resulted in an obtain of an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) in 1988, which extended the scope of examinations due to its excellent performance characteristics
compared to flame atom absorption (FAAS) and flame emission spectrometers (FES). The instrumental park retain up to date correlate to the developing analytical techniques due to acquiring a newer ICPAES in 1998 and an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer in 2004 – which sensitivity is three order of magnitude better compared to ICP-AES. The Institute supports the work with its own ICP-AES and ICP-MS since 2011.