Beyond small plots, into the future
Matias Ruffo
Agricultural experimentation has relied for many years on small-plot research which allowed significant discoveries and progress in this science. Farmers and other end-users of the information claim that small plot results do not reflect production conditions and that the results are biased. In addition, many soil and crop processes occur at scales larger than the ones explored with small plots. Today, several new and not so new tools are available to conduct complex and robust experiments at the landscape scale and on-farm. This presentation will discuss and show examples of applications of the different tools, and the new opportunities and challenges associated with landscape research scale.