soil-science

The Farmers in the Roots

I was doing my rounds at dawn — the eastern plots, the riverine terraces, the experimental rows where we're trialing the new bean cultivars — when Fumiko Ito caught up with me, slightly out of breath, holding her tablet out like she was presenting evidence in a trial. "Plot 12-North," she said. "Look at the nitrogen map." I looked. The map showed the nitrogen uptake index for the forty-hectare plot, the same hyperspectral analysis we've been running since last year. Twelve months ago, Plot 12-