I am working on my Msc. research thesis and one of my objective is to recommend appropriate crop and fertilizer for a particular type of soil to be predicted from soil dataset. please, can someone help me in explaining what methodology to use in achieving the stated objectives
There are many ways , but most effective methods are used quite frequently.One is the standard experimentation on soil test - based crop response studies , and secondly developing models on fertilizer use, soil test data and crop yield obtained at various field. Use targeýted yield concept...
Please do an extensive literature survey and you yourself can get the answer.
I'm afraid the answer is region specific. Because also depends whether an equilbrium fertilisation or sub-equilibrium (nutrient removal) is foreseen, OR whether overfertilisation against crop requirement are allowed.
Surely answer is region as well as crop specific ..and it goes down further to soil specific . Most important is have such an information . One possible method could be to identify the crop , look at those major production centres , try to locate the major soils in those areas . But , such exercise will be limited only to these issues. To get soil test -based fertilizer recommendation for a given crop , i am afraid , not that simple...
Mr.Ibrahim,Your project is not so clear to me.If you are interested in modeling soil testing methodology especially fertilizer recommendation system by mining the existing soil test data,the following reference may help.
Virtual soil testing:Is it possible Karamanos,R.E. and Cannon,K.R.Commun.Soil Sci.Plant Anal.33(15-18)2599-2616 2002
http://dx.doi.org/10.1081/CSS-120014467
Fertilization recommendation can be made to improve the yields of agricultural crops,. For it is better to adopt an Integrated Plant Nutrition System based on soil fertility and crop requirement to ensure balanced fertilization for different soils. On the other hands, you can also use models like DSSIFER 2010 – which is user friendly software for soil test based as mentioned in literature, which used for fertilizer recommendation, irrigation water quality and problem of soil management.
Base on your analysis of data gathered, and soil tested results, I think you can better understand what recommendations to be made from the results.