The new iMetos system will help in minimizing over-fertilization

The company's stand-alone weather stations have long been a faithful assistant to farmers in planning field operations. The undoubted advantage of the company's product line is forecasting of harvesting time and plant protection. This year the company is going to present a new tool - MobiLab. Foreign media already reported on the new system. World of NAN portal also decided to provide information to Kazakh farmers about the novelty.

In short, MobiLab is an easy-to-use, portable laboratory which determines nutrients in soil and assesses the condition of crops, using samples from soil and plant saps.

The developers have listened to the opinion of experts - getting the maximum yield depends on the right dosage of mineral fertilizers. Simply put, the system is designed to help you apply the optimal dose of plant protection products.

Since the level of nutrients contained in the soil is not uniform in any field, the challenge of the new system is to determine exactly what nutrients are needed in the specific area selected for planting.

"Farmers need to minimize overfertilization by meeting the needs of the crop they intend to plant. A system based on laboratory measurements will help determine how much fertilizer is needed to produce the planned crop. So the lab not only helps them optimize their use of protection products, but it also saves growers the cost of buying too much fertilizer," commented Guy Ash, Training and Key Account Manager at iMetos Canada.

How it works

Soil testing with MobiLab, according to experts, is an accurate but not complicated process. The system includes all the necessary equipment and instructions for taking a sample in the field, sifting to remove large particles and debris. To take a sample from plant sap, simply squeeze the petiole of a given plant through a garlic press and collect the droplets. The portable lab works thanks to a two-inch chip that uses an electric field to separate and then measures the concentration of various nutrients and soil moisture in the selected area. The station itself connects to a computer and automatically populates the included program of research results, providing a detailed analysis.

Note that the first version of MobiLab, introduced in 2017, measured only nitrate concentration. In 2019, the updated system already recognized ammonia, sodium, and chlorine. The version released in 2020 detected calcium and magnesium. In 2021, iMetos is introducing a new system that will do soil analysis for copper, iron, zinc, aluminum and boron.

"Each sample received is noted in a GPS-linked system, which allows you to determine exactly which area of the field the sample was taken from. This data can then be integrated into precision mapping programs to produce a high-resolution nutrient map of the field. The information can then be used to determine exactly how much fertilizer needs to be placed in the spray trays," according to the developers.

All data is stored in iMetos FieldClimate's cloud-based storage, allowing easy and secure access to the information over the long term.

The savings when using MobiLab equipment lie in fertilizer optimization, the company stresses. They anticipate that with the help of the new lab, European farmers will switch to precise application of crop protection products and will be able to save up to 40% of fertilizers.