Javier Bueno: «Current mechanisation allows for increased precision and makes agricultural and forestry production processes more sustainable»

In an ever-growing global community, increasing agricultural productivity and efficiency is essential. Responding to the growing demand for food also requires a sustainable approach that allows for the development of a production model that respects our environment.

One of the best strategies for achieving these objectives is Precision Agriculture, which, combined with effective mechanisation of the agricultural sector, also makes it possible to address the issue of rural depopulation in our country. 

To delve deeper into this highly relevant topic, we spoke with Javier Bueno Lema, a researcher and lecturer in Agroforestry Engineering at the Higher Polytechnic Engineering School on our campus, a member of the BioMODEM Research Group, and Vice-Rector for Coordination at the Lugo Campus from 2014 to 2018.

-In recent years, you have led projects such as MilloPreciso, focused on the cultivation of forage maize in Galicia using precision techniques. What specific improvements does Precision Agriculture bring to this strategic crop in Galician livestock production?

-Precision Agriculture consists of making decisions based on data in order to optimise agricultural and livestock production.

In the case of forage maize, when we harvest it with forage harvesters equipped with sensors that allow us to measure crop production in a georeferenced manner, we obtain around 1,000 data points per hectare, which enable us to determine the yield with great precision in each area of the plot.

This enables the creation of yield maps that can be used to distribute seed, fertilizer, or plant protection products variably, providing the correct amount in each area of the plot.

With this new approach to managing inputs, we can increase production, reduce production costs, and improve the environmental sustainability of the crop. 

-Another of your most recent projects is PurinPreciso, which addresses the intelligent application of slurry as a fertiliser. What technologies are enabling this process to be optimised and its environmental impact to be reduced?

-Slurry is a resource from livestock farms that, when used for organic fertilisation of crops, allows savings in the use of mineral fertilisers. But one of the problems with it is that it is a heterogeneous product with a variable composition, so unless we analyse it, we do not know how many nutrients it contains.

In the PurinPreciso project, we are developing an intelligent system that utilizes sensors to measure the electrical conductivity of the slurry in the distribution tank, enabling us to determine the amount of nutrients it contains and control its application on the plot.

In this way, we can determine, for example, the amount of nitrogen we are applying with that slurry per hectare and regulate the dose to ensure it does not exceed the amount needed by the crop. This prevents overdosing and the environmental impact that would result from it.

-Agrolab_Biogal is committed to the use of low-cost NIR spectroscopy technologies for the analysis of contaminants. To what extent can these tools contribute to the more sustainable management of agricultural and livestock resources?

-The Agrolab-Biogal project will develop a low-cost NIR to achieve greater accuracy than electrical conductivity measurements in slurry nutrient analysis. Current NIR models available on the market for installation in distribution tanks are expensive, which limits their widespread use. The aim is to improve accuracy, especially for nutrients such as phosphorus, where conductivity measurements often yield unsatisfactory results, while maintaining a more affordable cost for users.

-You have been training students in the field of agricultural and forestry mechanisation for more than three decades. How has teaching in this field changed since you began your teaching career in 1991?

-Technology is constantly evolving and, in my 34 years of teaching experience, mechanisation has evolved from the use of machines based mainly on mechanical and hydraulic components to an increasingly important role for electronics.

This has been accompanied by improvements in work quality, increased work capacity, enhanced efficiency, reduced environmental impact, and improvements in operator safety and comfort.

Mechanisation adapts to changes in the rural environment. With fewer people living in rural areas, machines are becoming larger because farms are also expanding in size, and are less dependent on labour, with greater automation and even robotization.

-One of the focal points of your teaching is Precision Agriculture, a rapidly expanding field. What skills do you consider essential for future agroforestry engineers to meet the challenges of agricultural digitalisation?

-Future rural engineers will find that machines are generating more and more data while they work. This is because the electronic sensors that collect this data are very inexpensive compared to the price of the machine.

Agricultural and forestry machinery are currently the largest sources of digital data and also the most cost-effective. For this reason, it is increasingly important to know how to analyse and manage large amounts of digital data in order to transform it into useful information that can improve the efficiency of production processes.

This is the basis of Precision Agriculture: to be more efficient in the use of resources (seeds, soil, water, fertilizers, etc.) and to produce the same or more at a lower cost, with greater respect for the environment.

This is achieved by basing decision-making on data, information and knowledge. New technologies will determine the competitiveness of many agricultural productions and their survival in the market, so knowledge of these technologies will be one of the important challenges in the future.

-Your participation in numerous R&D and I projects reflects a strong applied component in your work as a researcher. How is collaboration between universities, the productive sector and administrations articulated in the development of technological solutions for the field?

-If universities want to continue to be useful in training the technicians who will work in the rural environment of the future, we must be in constant contact with the productive sectors, with companies and with the administration that regulates them.

This collaboration is essential in order to adapt teaching and research work to the needs of the society that finances us as a public university. That is why technology transfer should have greater weight in university activity.

Research and innovation projects, in collaboration with the productive sector and administrations, enable us to identify new training needs as they emerge and stay current with the knowledge required by society. These collaborations are essential for keeping in touch with a reality that is changing at an ever-increasing pace.

-In a context of climate change and growing environmental demands, what role can agricultural and forestry mechanisation play in the transition to more resilient and sustainable production systems?

-The introduction of new technologies such as satellite guidance systems, electronic machinery control, robotics and artificial intelligence is making mechanisation increasingly efficient and precise.

This makes it possible to reduce the quantities of the main agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizers, plant protection products, etc.) and distribute them with greater precision.

As they say, it is a question of applying the right product, in the right quantity, in the right place and at the right time. This reduces the potential negative environmental impacts that can occur when the distribution of these inputs is not well managed.

Current mechanisation makes it possible to increase precision and make agricultural and forestry production processes more sustainable.

-Looking to the future, what lines of research do you think agroforestry engineering should focus on to respond to the challenges facing the sector in the coming years?

-Currently, the main problem in rural areas is the availability of labour. Therefore, looking to the future, all technologies that enable work to be carried out with reduced dependence on personnel, lower production costs, greater resource efficiency, and less environmental impact will be a priority for rural areas.