Advances in Sensor Technology for Sustainable Crop Production

With the agricultural sector facing mounting pressure to reduce their carbon footprint, greater emphasis has been placed on improving existing components and practices, such as soil health and biodiversity, which have since emerged as key components to achieving regenerative agriculture.

Sensors provide the opportunity to measure crop and soil health at unparalleled scales and resolution. Key developments in sensor technology will help improve our current understanding and optimisation of the complex agricultural systems that make up our global ecosystem.

Advances in sensor technology for sustainable crop production provides a comprehensive review of the wealth of research on key developments in sensor technology to improve monitoring and management of crop health, soil health, weeds and diseases. This collection also reviews advances in proximal and remote sensing techniques to monitor soil health, such as spectroscopy and radiometrics, as well as how sensor technology can be optimised for more targeted irrigation, site-specific nutrient and weed management.

• Assesses key developments in sensor technology to improve monitoring and management of complex agricultural systems
• Considers the growing influence of proximal crop sensors in assessing, monitoring and measuring the health of agricultural soils
• Explores the potential of remote and aerial sensing towards achieving sustainable crop production through more targeted irrigation management, site-specific nutrient management and weed management

“Much of future innovation in crop production will revolve around digital agriculture – the collection, management, interpretation and application of data. Sensor technology is a key component of this future. Thus it is exciting to see this collection about the application of sensors in sustainable crop production from these highly knowledgeable authors. This will be an important reference for students, researchers and practitioners applying sensors in crop production systems.”{::}(Dr Richard B. Ferguson, Professor and International Soil Scientist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA)

With the agricultural sector facing mounting pressure to reduce its carbon footprint, there is growing focus on practices such as improving soil health which are seen as key to achieving regenerative agriculture. Sensors provide the opportunity to measure soil and crop health at unparalleled scales and resolution.

Advances in sensor technology for sustainable crop production reviews the wealth of research on key developments in sensor technology to improve monitoring and management of crop and soil health. This collection summarises advances in proximal and remote sensing techniques as well data analytics in enabling more targeted, site-specific nutrient, water and disease management.

With its distinguished editors and expert authors, Advances in sensor technology for sustainable crop production will be a standard reference for university and other researchers in crop, soil, environment and computer science, farmers, growers, agricultural professionals offering specialist advice and services, as well as government and other private sector agencies monitoring the health of agricultural soils and supporting sustainable crop production.

Dr Craig Lobsey is a Senior Lecturer in Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He is Chair of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) Working Group on Proximal Soil Sensing (WG-PSS). His research extends across many different sensor technologies and applications, with a focus on improving our understanding and optimisation of agricultural systems. He has previously guest edited a special issue of Sensors on ‘Proximal Soil Sensing’.

Dr Asim Biswas is a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph, Canada. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada College, the President of Canadian Society of Soil Science, Vice-Chair of the IUSS WG-PSS and is an Associate Editor of eight journals. He is internationally known for his research on data-driven sustainable soil management.