Development of technology for diagnosis of the nutritional status of nitrogen and potassium for maize in commercial production environments.

• Grant number: 13/13148-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: April 01, 2014
• End date: March 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy
• Principal Investigator: Pedro Henrique de Cerqueira Luz
• Grantee: Liliane Maria Romualdo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The development of a technology for nutritional diagnosis of maize through artificial intelligence, by using an artificial vision system (AVS) is being carried out for over four years in a partnership between the Agrarian Studies FZEA / USP and the Group of Scientific Computing IFSC / USP. The initial study was to use this technology to identify nutritional deficiencies induced in maize plants grown in the greenhouse, obtaining promising results and reliable index of right. Based on the results achieved so far, it was realized that to get improvements with the use of this technology, it is necessary to study methods using images of leaves of maize grown in the field in order to validate the SVA on a commercial scale. Thus, the purpose of this project is to generate a database of images from maize leaves grown in different production environments, subjected to levels of nitrogen and potassium for the SVA can recognize and identify the nutritional patterns aiming at the applicability in commercial crops. The experiments will be arranged in a randomized block in a factorial design. The factors shall be composed of nitrogen and potassium levels (4 x 4) in 4 blocks. Nutrient levels will be: complete omission, 50%, 100% and 200% of the recommended levels. Evaluations will be performed in the development stages V4 and R1, times in which images of indicative and old leaves will be collected for processing by the SVA, and determined the levels of macro and micronutrients. At the end of the crop cycle will be carried productivity assessments and soil chemical analysis.