SPACE DISTRIBUTION OF SOYBEAN SEED STORAGE POTENTIAL

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the spatial distribution of the physiological quality of soybean seeds during storage from a production field of 39 hectares using geostatistical techniques in the 2012/2013 harvest. Seeds were sampled at geo-referenced points for the determination of physiological quality and spatial dependence analysis. The results were submitted to analysis of descriptive statistics, Pearson's linear correlation and geostatistics. The grid of one point per hectare and a georeferenced sampling mesh with spacing of 100 meters between points was efficient in the evaluation of the spatial variability. It was verified the existence of a negative correlation between the variable protein content and bed bug attack and a significant correlation between the intensity of bed bug damage and the protein content with the variables related to seed quality. Physiological quality is not uniform, particularly in relation to vigor, providing better diagnosis through interpolation maps. Precision agriculture, coupled with the monitoring of seed quality during storage, indicated spatial variability of quality from harvest to the end of storage. Areas with high rates of bedbug and unit damage presented low quality physiology and reduced protein levels. The geostatistics allows to determine the spatial distribution of the physiological quality of soybean seeds in the area of seed production, facilitating the decision making, regarding the areas to be harvested.