Crop site-specific management, also known as precision farming, is related to the application of information technology to the agricultural systems. The implementation of precision farming programs depends on the integration of soil, plant and climate data in order to generate useful information. The recognition of patterns for soil and plant properties is important especially for crop zone management strategies. Aiming to study management aspects by zone delineation and spatial yield patterns, a field experiment was carried out in Angatuba, SP (23º33’ S; 48º18’ W; 670 m). Grid soil sampling was performed and plant and climatic data were collected in a 40 ha area cultivated with maize autumn sowing, in two consecutive growing seasons. Integration of these data was done under a procedure for soil pattern recognition, aiming a management by zone delineation and yield spatial distribution verification. The proposed integrated procedures for area segmentation showed to be promising and the management by zone delineation process suggests itself to be influenced by mean properties and climatic conditions.
maize; precision farming; cluster analysis; GIS
