Yara International: Tools for Precision Farming

“In managing crop nutrition, Yara follows two main principles, efficiency and clarity. Efficient Yara will exert precision farming according to separate nutrient demand of different crops in different period, combining with proper nutrition schemes and tools,” Mr. Liu Jin, general manager of China Yara, told this reporter recently, at the 2017 CNCIC Global Specialty Fertilizer Convention in Beijing.
Precision farming is the key solution to many problems. For instance, in 2015, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture set a goal for reaching zero increase in fertilizer application by 2020, which implies controlling fertilizer abuse—not only wasting fertilizer but also greatly harming crops and the quality of soil and water. Thus, precision farming, helpful in promoting crop output, became the trend of China’s agriculture development.
Yara International has developed various tools and services enabling more efficient use of fertilizers and water. The Yara N-Sensor and N-tester, sensing the nitrogen content of a crop, enable precision agriculture. N-sensor is a tractor-mounted suspended unit. As the fertilizer spreader passes across the field, N-sensor will measure, real-time, variations in a crop’s nitrogen content and adjust the fertilizer application rate accordingly, achieving precision farming.   
Yara N-Tester is a hand-held leaf nitrogen measurement tool that enables quick and easy readings of its exact nitrogen status. Yara Agronomist will input leaf nitrogen rate and growth period into a database, enabling fast and accurate field-specific recommendations to help fine tune application during the growing season. In addition, the Yara Water-Sensor increases water-use efficiency. Upon assessing the water content of a leaf, Water-Sensor sends data wirelessly to the irrigation system enabling automatically water adjustment. Mr. Liu said the Water-Sensor can reduce water consumption by 20-30%.