Predictive modeling of soil profiles for precision agriculture: a case study in safflower cultivation environments

Evaluating high-throughput soil profile information is essential in safflower precision agriculture, as it facilitates efficient resource management and design of an experiment that promotes sustainable production. We collected soil from representative target environments (TE) of safflower cultivation and evaluated 14 soil physio-chemical features for constructing fine-resolution maps. The robustness, versatility, and predictive ability of two statistical learning models in correctly classifying the soil profile to clusters were tested. Calcium, sand, soil organic carbon, phosphorous, potassium, and sodium were found to be most influential in classifying the representative TE. Random Forest model was found to be the best performing with average prediction accuracy above 85% in all test settings which reached 100% in some. The optimal training population size for prediction was found to be 70-80%. The spatial distribution of sodium in Delhi was found to be aligned with the low yield of safflower emphasizing the importance of fine-resolution soil mapping to design a field experiment and optimize the nutrient supply. Fine-resolution mapping not only enhance soil management strategies but also support government initiatives such as soil health cards, delineation of cultivable land, and risk assessments in crop-growing areas.