Soil moisture measurement and calibration methods in agriculture field and survey results

Soil water content has an important role for agriculture and agricultural science. Most physical and chemical properties of soil vary with moisture content. Measurement of soil moisture is needed in every type of soil study and applications. For agricultural purposes in particular, depending upon the soil-moisture-plant environment, is essential in crop production. For determining the soil moisture content, various techniques are employed for both the laboratory and in situ measurements. However, both classical and modern techniques used in agrometeorological studies and applications there is the need for an improvement of measurement and calibration uncertainty evaluation, related to the accuracy, precision, coverage and volume of measurements. In order to better understand how face this issue, a literature research on soil moisture measurement and calibration methods focused in agriculture was conducted. Moreover, a soil moisture questionnaire was designed and distributed by the project partners to their contacts, to address the applications of soil moisture measurements, measurement techniques, their calibration methods, classical gravimetric method and remote sensing techniques. The sectors of these contacts cover academia, industry, government organisations and manufacturers. A summary of main results will be presented.