J-DISTAS: predict field readiness to ensure efficiency of field operations and avoid soil compaction.

Sustainable crop production implies high efficiency of field operations and protection of the soil as a natural resource. Soil physical fertility is threatened by compaction, especially deep soil horizons for which remediation is more critical. Increased soil compaction, linked to the increase of agricultural equipment weight, causes yield losses on spring and summer crops. To avoid soil compaction and ensure field operations efficiency, including satisfactory crop production in a cost-effective way, field readiness prediction is necessary. Field readiness is defined by the combination of soil workability (soil suitability for cultural operations) and soil trafficability (soil capacity to support machinery during traffic without soil physical degradation).

Available tools focused on one part of the problem, e.g. soil compaction risk in deep soil horizon, or possibility of efficient field operation ; each has usually been built for a specific pedoclimatic context, which questions its application in a broader context. Available tools also frequently need to be upgraded to better consider compaction risk according to machinery evolution.

The J-DISTAS project (2019-2022) aims at evaluating and improving these tools, and structuring them to create a prototype of interoperable tools to predict field readiness. The resulting tool will be based on the combination of two mechanistic models (Terranimo for soil compaction and the CHN crop model for soil water content), pedotransfer functions to estimate soil water potential and soil workability, and a decisional tool of field readiness build from expert knowledge. Its ability to predict field readiness and its sensibility to input data will be evaluated.

The developed inter-operable tools could be used as a decision support tool that includes field readiness in strategic decisions, conception of cropping systems in the context of global changes, or optimization of mechanical cost for equipment in agricultural machinery, and will help to soil physical quality protection.