**10. Conclusions**

Crop rotation is very likely to continue to be an important management practice, especially in the developed part of the world. However, economics is always going to have a major say in the decision making process of what gets planted where and by how much. Our ever increasing world population is going to place greater pressure on getting more production from our shrinking areas of arable land and potable water needed for drinking, personal use, and growing crops. Climate change is, despite all of the predictive computer models, a great unknown, not from the standpoint of whether or not it is occurring but as to just what can be realistically done, if anything, to curb it.

Lands that include a fallow period and/or irrigation to produce crops may eventually be taken out of the food and fiber production equation because of both shifts in the climate and the loss of water for irrigation. Production areas of various crop species may shift due to climate change. Changes in crop genetics through biotech and genetic engineering may contribute some relief but improvements in water use efficiency are not going to eliminate the need for irrigation. Also, genetically engineered crops in many areas of the world are not being well received based on fears, real or imaginary, and increased costs of such seed stocks are often prohibitive to many producers. A nearly 500% increase in energy prices and a shift from food, feed, and fiber crops to renewable energy crops will have an increasing impact on the land available to grow all crops and the rotations to produce them. Given the history of crop rotations and the overall benefits that appear to be gained from them, it is virtually assured that they will continue to be an important practice in food production. Despite the difficulties associated with conducting crop rotation research, it will be beneficial to society as a whole to support efforts in this area and to adequately reward scientists willing to dedicate their professional efforts in such endeavors.

#### **11. References**

42 Agricultural Science

estimated by Lal et al. (1998; 1999) resulting from an improvement in rotation

Conservation tillage can present pest control problems that are different from those found in conventional systems, particularly weeds. Weed species composition and abundance often change in response to crop and soil management practices (Cardina et al., 2002). Buhler (1995), wrote that most conservation tillage practices rely heavily on increased herbicide use and that reduced herbicide efficacy has slowed the adoption of conservation tillage practices. Weed populations have tended to shift more towards perennials, summer annual grasses, biennials and winter annual species in conservation tillage systems. Moyer et al.,(1994) stated that successful conservation tillage systems usually involve crop rotations of three or more species and several different herbicides. Legere et al., 1997 concluded that conservation tillage has the potential to produce sustained yields of spring barley in Quebec, provided attention is given to critical aspects such as crop establishment and weed management. With respect to plant diseases, Peters et al., (2003) determined that soil agroecosystems can be modified by crop rotation and conservation tillage to increase disease suppression by enhanced antibiosis abilities of endophytic and root zone bacteria in

Crop rotation is very likely to continue to be an important management practice, especially in the developed part of the world. However, economics is always going to have a major say in the decision making process of what gets planted where and by how much. Our ever increasing world population is going to place greater pressure on getting more production from our shrinking areas of arable land and potable water needed for drinking, personal use, and growing crops. Climate change is, despite all of the predictive computer models, a great unknown, not from the standpoint of whether or not it is occurring but as to just what

Lands that include a fallow period and/or irrigation to produce crops may eventually be taken out of the food and fiber production equation because of both shifts in the climate and the loss of water for irrigation. Production areas of various crop species may shift due to climate change. Changes in crop genetics through biotech and genetic engineering may contribute some relief but improvements in water use efficiency are not going to eliminate the need for irrigation. Also, genetically engineered crops in many areas of the world are not being well received based on fears, real or imaginary, and increased costs of such seed stocks are often prohibitive to many producers. A nearly 500% increase in energy prices and a shift from food, feed, and fiber crops to renewable energy crops will have an increasing impact on the land available to grow all crops and the rotations to produce them. Given the history of crop rotations and the overall benefits that appear to be gained from them, it is virtually assured that they will continue to be an important practice in food production. Despite the difficulties associated with conducting crop rotation research, it will be beneficial to society as a whole to support efforts in this area and to adequately reward scientists willing to dedicate their professional efforts in such

management.

**10. Conclusions** 

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**4** 

**Texture, Color and Frequential Proxy-Detection** 

**Image Processing for Crop Characterization in a** 

The concept of precision agriculture consists to spatially manage crop management practices according to in-field variability. This concept is principally dedicated to variable-rate application of inputs such as nitrogen, seeds and phytosanitary products, allowing for a better yield management and reduction on the use of pesticides, herbicides … In this general context, the development of ICT techniques has allowed relevant progresses for Leaf Area Index (LAI) (Richardson et al., 2009), crop density (Saeys et al., 2009), stress (Zygielbaum et al., 2009) … Most of the tools used for Precision Farming utilizes optical and/or imaging sensors and dedicated treatments, in real time or not, and eventually combined to 3D plant growth modeling or disease development (Fournier et al., 2003 ; Robert et al., 2008). To evaluate yields or to better define the appropriated periods for the spraying or fertilizer input, to detect crop, weeds, diseases …, the remote sensing imaging devices are often used to complete or replace embedded sensors onboard the agricultural machinery (Aparicio et al., 2000). Even if these tools provide sufficient accurate information, they get some drawbacks compared to "proxy-detection" optical sensors: resolution, easy-to-use tools, accessibility, cost, temporality, precision of the measurement … The use of specific image acquisition systems coupled to reliable image processing should allow for a reduction of working time, a lower work hardness and a reduction of the bias of the measurement according to the operator, or a better spatial sampling due to the rapidity of the image acquisition (instead of the use of remote sensing). The early evaluation of yield could allow farmers, for example, to adjust cultivation practices (e.g., last nitrogen (N) input), to organize harvest and storage logistics. The optimization of late N application could lead to significant improvements for the environment, one of the most important concerns that

Journaux Ludovic1, Rabatel Gilles2, Germain Christian3, Ooms David4, Destain Marie-France4,

Gorretta Nathalie2, Grenier Gilbert3, Lavialle Olivier3 and Marin Ambroise1

*3IMS – Bordeaux University - Bordeaux Sciences Agro, France 4ULg (Gembloux Agro-BioTech), Belgium* 

**1. Introduction** 

precision agriculture aims to address.

*1AgroSup Dijon, France 2Irstea Montpellier, France* 

 \*

**Context of Precision Agriculture** 

Cointault Frédéric et al.\*

*AgroSup Dijon,* 

*France* 

