Artificial Intelligence and Digital Application in Soil Science : Potential Options for Sustainable Soil Management in Future

Abstract

Soil supports plant growth by supplying nutrients and water and thus plays a key role in agricultural production system. Therefore, sustainable management of soil resources is very important to meet the food production targets. Soil nutrient statuses are generally monitored on regular basis to apply additional nutrient requirement for plant growth through manures and fertilizers. Similarly, soil hydraulic properties e.g. hydraulic conductivity, water retention etc are to be characterized in order to apply right amount of irrigation water at right time. Conventionally, soils are characterized through field sampling followed by their laboratory analysis. However, considering the spatial variation of soil properties and time required to measure these properties in laboratory, it if often found difficult to collect multiple samples from field and then to determine soil properties in laboratory. With the advancement in digital technology specifically the artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, there is huge scope to apply these technologies to assess soil properties in field in a quick time. Here, we discusses few potential options of artificial intelligence and digital technology to apply in soil science. Digital camera can be used to prepare digital soil library and then applying machine learning tools on the large database on digital photographs may be possible to relate soil properties with colour. Machine learning tools e.g. random forest regression, support vector machines, regression tree etc. can be applied to prepare digital soil maps using legacy soil data after considering the ‘scorpan’ factors of soil formation. The available information of soil resources as well as the information generated through machine learning tools can be made available to stakeholders through soil information system in different platforms e.g. android application in smart phones, web GIS in desktops etc. Further, handheld devices may be developed to quickly measure soil properties in field. Therefore these technologies have huge potentials in agriculture and coworking robots (cobots) is a futuristic option.