Targeting crop 'hidden hunger' with plant tissue and grain testing

摘要

Grain cropping is essentially about converting rainfall into a harvestable commodity as often and as efficiently as possible!-To achieve this, constraints to water use by plants need to be reduced where possible. Adequate plant nutrition is one such constraint that can have a significant influence on the overall productivity of the system, and potentially whole farm profitability. Hidden hunger in plants can restrict plant growth without visual symptoms of nutrient deficiency. Plant tissue analysis may allow this lost production potential as a result of inadequate plant nutrient uptake to be identified. Visual differences in crop growth of less than 20% are difficult for the human eye to detect, so applying remote or proximal sensor measurements mayallow an improved plant growth assessment. Is it due to variety, nutrition, water, weeds, disease, insects, herbicides, nematodes or another factor? Plant tissue analysis could be part of the 'ground truthing' response - why are these areas different inproductivity?