Precision agriculture is one of the alternatives that may help maintaining the Brazilian international leadership in coffee production by reducing production costs and increasing competitiveness and product quality. Assessing the spatial variability of soil attributes has a crucial importance for the application of precision agriculture techniques. Therefore, the aim of this work was to evaluate the spatial variability of soil chemical attributes and coffee yield in two agricultural seasons. Soil samples were collected in a depth of 0.0-0.2 m, at the crossing points of a regular grid, comprising a total of 68 points located at 25 m-intervals in an area of 6.2 ha. Fruits of four coffee plants around the soil sampling points were collected and the average yield per plant was calculated. The spatial dependence found for chemical attributes and coffee yield as well as the similar behavior of the attributes studied in the different agricultural seasons indicates that the bi-annuity effect did not intervene with the spatial variability of the crop. The large amplitude found for soil chemical attributes justifies to study the differentiated and localized application of fertilizers in coffee plantations. The spatial linear regression showed a similar spatial variability in both chemical attributes and coffee yield in the two studied seasons.
Site-specific management; kriging; oxisol; Coffea arabica
