Management Soil Zones, Irrigation, and Fertigation Effects on Yield and Oil Content of Coriandrum sativum L. Using Precision Agriculture with Fuzzy k-Means Clustering

Abstract

Precision agriculture (PA), management zone (MZ) strategies at the field level, soil analyses, deficit irrigation (DI), and fertilizer Variable Rate Application (VRA) are management strategies that help farmers improve crop production, fertilizer use efficiency, and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE). In order to further investigate these management strategies, the effects of four soil MZ treatments, which were delineated using PA with fuzzy k-means clustering, two irrigation levels [IR1:FI = full drip irrigation (>90% of θfc), IR2:VDI = variable deficit drip irrigation (60–75% of θfc)], and four VRA fertilizations were studied on coriander yield and essential oil content in a two-year research project in Greece. A daily soil-water-crop-atmosphere (SWCA) balance model and a daily depletion model were developed using sensor measurements (climatic parameter sensors as well as soil moisture sensors). Unbalanced one-way ANOVA (p = 0.05) statistical analysis results revealed that correct delineation of MZs by PA with fuzzy k-means clustering, if applied under deficit irrigation and VRA fertilization, leads to increased essential oil content of coriander with statistically significant differences (SSD) and lower fruit yields; however, without SSD differences among management zones, when appropriate VRA fertilization is applied to leverage soil nutrient levels through the different fuzzy clustered MZs for farming sustainability. Moreover, VDI compared to full irrigation in different MZs yields 22.85% to 29.44% in water savings, thus raising IWUE (up to 64.112 kg m−3), nitrogen efficiency (up to 5.623), and N-P-K fertilizer productivity (up to 5.329).