The acceleration of Digital Agriculture is evident through the increased adoption of digital technologies on farms including smart machines, sensors and cloud computing. In this paper we present the preliminary results of the research project funded by Università Politecnica delle Marche in 2018 “PFRLab: Setting of a precision farming robotic laboratory for cropping system sustainability and food safety and security”, which is still underway. In this context, as first result, an interdepartmental Research and Services Center called “Smart Farming” has been set up with the aim to strengthen multidisciplinary collaborations in the fields of Agriculture and Forestry, Geomatics, ICT and Robotics. Regarding field activities the SPAD 502 as well as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) provide a good estimate of the Chlorophylla+b content in durum wheat leaves so can be used to predict in a quickly and non-destructively way, the crop greenness status and to identify any nutritional deficiencies in real time. Future research activities are certainly needed to fully explore the potentialities of conservation agriculture and precision farming, and to drive the transition process from conventional agriculture to modern conservation agriculture and precision farming techniques. In-depth studies are planned on the combined effect of nitrogen fertilization and soil management on the main production variables of durum wheat in order to evaluate whether specific tools for precision agriculture applications can find significant diffusion even in Mediterranean cereal based cropping systems.

Different soil samples characterised by a long-term Hg-pollution were studied for Hg total content, fractionation, phytotoxicity and influence on the bacterial community. Hg pollution ranged from 1 to 50mg kg(-1) and most of it was speciated in scarcely soluble forms. In agreement with this, the biochemical quality indexes were investigated (biomass, enzyme activities) and the bacterial community (viable heterotrophic (VH) bacteria, functional diversity) apparently was not influenced by the degree of Hg pollution. In particular, the investigated soils exhibited a low percentage of Hg-resistant (Hg-R) bacteria ranging from less than 0.001% to 0.25% of the VH and the addition of available Hg in the form of HgCl2 induced an enrichment of resistant Hg-R populations. The general biodiversity of the bacterial community was evaluated by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of DNA of Hg spiked soil microcosms and of control soils. Hg-R bacteria capable to grow in a minimal medium containing HgCl2 were also isolated and identified. MerA and merB gene PCR fragments were obtained from different Hg-R strains and the range of similarities at the DNA level and at the deduced amino acid level showed that they carried mercuric reductase and lyase. Differently from bacteria, some influence of soil Hg content on seeds' germination and root elongation was observed for Lepidium sativum L. and Solanum lycopersicum L. In conclusion, most of the Hg in these long-term polluted soils was scarcely mobile and available and did not significantly influence the soil bacterial community. The risk of potential Hg remobilisation over time, that could be naturally favoured by the activity of plant roots or other inorganic processes occurring in soil, can be extenuated since bacterial community was resistant and resilient to subsequent Hg stress.

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A field experiment was carried out to evaluate modifications on the chemical and biochemical parameters of an agricultural alkaline soil (pH=8.31) under sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) by applying different amounts of sulphur by-product coming from oil desulphurization process. Soil chemical properties such as sulphate formation, pH, soil electrical conductivity (EC), total and extractable organic carbon (TOC and TEC), and biochemical parameters such as microbial biomass carbon content (MBC) and total hydrolytic capacity (FDA-hydrolysis), arylsulphatase (ArS-ase) and o-diphenoloxidase (o-DPO), were monitored. Commercial parameters of yield and quality production of sugar beet (yield of roots, % of polarization, extractable saccharose content and purity of thick juice) were also determined. All soil chemical and biochemical properties and commercial parameters of sugar beet were monitored in plots treated with 1 (S1), 5 (S5) and 10 (S10) t ha(-1) of sulphur by-product and compared with untreated plots (SO). In S 1, 60 days after amendment the highest values of sulphate formed (310 mg kg(-1)) and the EC (1596 mu S cm(-1)), were observed. In S5, the sulphate formed was 2583 mg kg(-1) and soil EC was 4138 mu S cm(-1) after 210 days, while in S10 the amount of sulphur added probably exceeded soil oxidation capacity since it continued more slowly till the end of the experiment. After 210 days, soil pH reached the lowest value in all the treated plots and it was 7.75, 7.52 and 7.26 in S cm(-1), S5 and S 10, respectively. No significant modifications were made on soil biochemical parameters tested by the different amounts of sulphur added. A decrease in the production yield of sugar beet (27.2%) was found only when the highest amount of sulphur was applied. In contrast, no worsening of main commercial parameters was observed.

Introduction. - The increasing evidence of sulphur deficiency in agricultural soil all over the world, has increased the interest in studying elemental sulphur application and its oxidation rates, to better maximize soil and crop production where soil acidification is recommended (Slaton et al., 2001).

The soil skeleton (larger than 2 mm fraction) can provide a source of organic carbon which may represent an unexplored possibility of adsorbing and degrading pesticides.The present paper reports a laboratory experiment on the adsorption of metobromuron and terbuthylazine on the skeleton and fine earth of two Italian soils derived from two parent rocks, a calcareous marl and a sandstone. K(F) values of 1.30 and 2.22 for metobromuron and 1.24 and 2.21 for terbuthylazine were found in the fine earth of sandstone and calcareous marl, respectively. Surprisingly, the soil skeleton, intended as the 2-10 mm fraction, showed a good adsorption capacity of about 40% and 20% with respect to the fine earth fraction for sandstone and calcareous marl soils, respectively. The derived K(oc) values for the skeleton turned out to be much higher than those of the fine earth indicating an adsorption activity of organic carbon in the skeleton higher than that of the fine earth.Pesticide degradation followed first order kinetics in all samples and half-life values in the skeleton were in the same range as those in the fine earth demonstrating a biodegradation activity of this substrate. A degradation trial in sterilized skeleton of the two soils supports the previous statement, since degradation was almost absent.The experiment performed indicated a possible contribution of the soil coarse fraction to pesticide adsorption and degradation, helping in their disappearance from the environment. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

- Inorganic sulphur is mainly present as SO 4 -S or as mineral sulphur in soil. Different extractant solutions were tested in order to achieve a rapid and sensitive extraction procedure for soluble sulphate in alkaline soil. A Vertic Eutrodept fine-loamy soil was added with 0, 0.33, 0.83, 1.67, 3.33 mg g -1 of elemental sulphur corresponding to 0, 1, 2.5, 5, 10 ton ha -1 respectively, and incubated for one year under laboratory conditions. The total amount of SO 4 -S formed was extracted by using deionised water, 10 mM CaCl 2 , 10 mM NaHCO 3 , 10 mM KH 2 PO 4 , 10 mM K 2 HPO 4 and 1 mM KOH aqueous solutions. Three different extracting-times of 0.5, 1 and 2 hours between each solution and soil were evaluated, and SO 4 -S concentration was determined by both turbidimetric method and ion chromatography system. 1 mM KOH was found to be the most effective extractant for the removal of soluble SO 4 -S after 1 hour of extracting-time. Ion chromatography system has been shown to be more sensitive and rapid method for determining the amount of SO 4 -S extracted if compared to turbidimetric method.

Urban-waste compost (UWC) can be used as a biofilter filling to reduce the effects of pesticide spills. Here, water that was contaminated by three different pesticides, the insecticide chlorpyrifos (Chl), the fungicide metalaxyl (Meta) and the herbicide glyphosate (Gly), was percolated through 2 kg of UWC material. The pesticide residues in the leached water and the modifications induced in some of the UWC biochemical and microbiological parameters (including microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen (MBN), and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis, alkaline monophosphatase (AMP) and dehydrogenase (DH) activities) were investigated over 2 months of incubation at 20°C. The UWC showed a good retention capacity towards the three pesticides tested, with the highest efficiency for Gly. Chl caused an initial detrimental effect on the MBC content and a decrease in the FDA hydrolysis capacity, while Meta and Gly increased the MBC content throughout the incubation. The results demonstrate that UWC can be successfully used as a biofilter to reduce pesticide spills and to clean up water contaminated with pesticides. The evaluation of the modifications induced on the UWC MBC and MBN, and FDA hydrolysis, AMP and DH activities suggest different biodegradation potentials of the UWC micro-organisms vs. the three pesticides studied.