Nitrate measurement of Moroccan soil through Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistor (ISFET)

Abstract

Precision agriculture (PA) is a type of farming that focuses on detecting, measuring, and responding to crop variability in fields. Precision agriculture research strives to increase productivity while reducing resources consumption. Nitrate is one of the most critical macronutrients in soil for plant growth. Information on the concentration of nitrate in soil is needed to optimize the amount of fertilizer required for maximum yield. As a result, many farmers rely on traditional chemical analysis to obtain this information, which is costly, time-consuming, and resource intensive. There is a high demand for the use of less expensive and more accurate sensors for nitrate analysis. One of the more affordable and miniaturized sensors is the ISFET. However, this sensor requires specific calibration procedures and sample preparation. This study (i) presents the use of ISFET for the analysis of nitrates in Moroccan soils, (ii) propose to use a new calibration method for ISFET (iii) propose a procedure for Moroccan soil sample extraction. According to laboratory analysis, the findings of this study indicate good accuracy, and the derived conclusions state that ISFET can be used, as an efficient and accurate alternative, for nitrate studies.

Keywords

• ISFET
• Precision agriculture
• Nitrate
• Soil analysis
• Calibration method