Pedology, precision agriculture, and the changing paradigm of agriculturalresearch

Precision agriculture (PA) has recently been defined by the U.S, National R esearch Council as a management strategy that uses information technologies to bring data from multiple sources to bear on decisions associated with c rop production. Soil information is important here, but current soil survey data do not satisfy PA requirements. In this paper, the need for soil data in PA is discussed on the basis of Dutch research. Not only operational, b ut also tactical and strategic aspects are considered. On the operational l evel, soil data, including parameters derived with pedotransfer functions, support the use of simulation models to quantify dynamically soil water reg imes, N transformations, and biocide adsorption. Real time "forward-looking " simulations incorporated in early-warning systems assist in operational d ecisions on water, nutrient, and crop protection management. Backward-looki ng simulations, using historic weather data, can be used to evaluate differ ent management tactics for exploratory strategic and tactical purposes. Suc h simulations should balance production and environmental requirements, At the strategic and tactical level, assembled data on the performance of vari ous farm management systems should be grouped by soil series to build a sys tematic database, allowing "quick and preliminary" evaluations of the effec ts of farm management strategies based on experiences obtained elsewhere on similar soils.