Funding Agency: CSANR BIOAg Program, Washington State University
WSU Investigators: Pius Ndegwa, Lav Khot, and Gopi Kafle
Precision application of manure in agricultural lands entail accurate information on its nutrients. However, existing methods are unsuitable for real-time nutrient levels estimation. This project therefore explored the near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a rapid, non-destructive method of composition analyses, which can analyze several nutrients simultaneously. In order to apply NIRS technology for variable manure application under field conditions, our efforts were towards identification of specific spectral bands & development of robust computing algorithms for predicting manure nutrients (i.e. total ammoniacal N, ortho P, total N, and total P).