Conceptualization of a framework of decision support system for agriculture in hilly region

Decision support system (DSS) in agriculture helps farming community to take appropriate decision as per the situation to maximize economic return by enhancing productivity and reducing the cost of inputs. The prime most purpose of DSS is to enhance the input use efficiency by applying the input when it is needed most. The requirement of DSS in the hilly states is being felt more as environmental conditions vary greatly in tempo-spatial domain. Climate change associated with increasing probability of extreme weather conditions has further deepened the need of DSS. There have been many attempts in the past to use / develop DSS in the hilly regions. The serious efforts in this direction were initiated by fine tuning the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) in Indian conditions. DSSAT helps to take appropriate decisions on selection of cultivar, sowing time, irrigation, fertilization and harvesting of crops. Of late geospatial technology alone and in combination with crop simulation model has also been used to develop DSS. Present paper underlines the efforts of researchers / academicians to develop DSS in hilly states with their usability and limitations. Paper also conceptualizes a framework of DSS for hilly regions by integrating a forewarning system and agriculture expert system.

Weather – based crop protection stewardship at Pattambi, Kerala

Kerala, a bowl of rice is continuously facing problem of using maximum pesticide for controlling outbreak of major rice pests. Weather data, synoptic conditions have been used to predict outbreaks of certain important tropical rice pests. Weather influences on the bionomics of pests is examined the context of forecasting outbreaks. The synoptic situations as well as weather based indices are considered to forewarn the outbreaks of stem borer and leaf folder at and around Pattambi, Kerala. An attempt is made to work out optimal time of pesticide application using weather based forewarning system approach with an aim to reduce the pesticide consumption and environmental pollution.

Microclimate-Based Pest and Disease Management through a Forewarning System for Sustainable Cotton Production

Cotton is an essential commercial crop. Unfortunately, this crop is affected by many pests and diseases, which can cause considerable loss in yield. Climate has a strong correlation with the occurrence of pests and diseases in crops. Currently, weather forecasting services are available to the farmers, which help with weather-based planning of farm operations. Still, weather-based pest and disease forewarning services are not available to all the farmers. Unfortunately, cotton cultivation consumes about one-third of total pesticide consumption, which increases the cost of production apart from polluting the environment. An information and communication technology (ICT) based intelligent pest and disease forewarning system for cotton is an innovative system for providing forewarning on pests and diseases. It aims at improving farm productivity through better crop management. In this paper, the proposed method aims to predict the occurrence of pests and diseases based on microclimatic parameters. This pest and disease forewarning information and appropriate crop management practices will be disseminated to the farmers using electronic media through short message service (SMS), the Internet, etc. In this way, both livelihood security and environmental security are achieved. The proposed model shows a higher optimal performance then the two related works in terms of the average root mean square error rate, average accuracy rate, average percentage error rate, and prediction accuracy.

Bangladesh Perspective: Vehicle Speed Proposition System using Localized Wireless Identification

<p>Even in the era of advanced engineering, road accident has been a regular phenomenon causing death of many people in Bangladesh due to over speeding action of reckless drivers. There are several key places (such as schools, colleges, hospitals, highways and constructional areas etc.) where the speed of the vehicle should be lessened to avoid accidents. The roads and highways authority may place the speed limiter signboards in these areas to avoid these accidents, but these are frequently overlooked by the drivers. So this paper demonstrates a wireless forewarning system which will aid to control the speed of the vehicles at speed restricted areas. The whole system is established on the basis of radio frequency (RF) communication. There are two parts of this system named as transmitting unit and receiving unit. Each RF transmitter positioned on the roadside will be transmitting the code signal continuously. Whenever the vehicle enters the range of transmission, the RF receiver which is attached in the vehicle, will receive the signal and will display the information in a LCD monitor by notifying the driver to reduce the speed while going through that area.</p>

Bangladesh Perspective: Vehicle Speed Proposition System using Localized Wireless Identification

<p>Even in the era of advanced engineering, road accident has been a regular phenomenon causing death of many people in Bangladesh due to over speeding action of reckless drivers. There are several key places (such as schools, colleges, hospitals, highways and constructional areas etc.) where the speed of the vehicle should be lessened to avoid accidents. The roads and highways authority may place the speed limiter signboards in these areas to avoid these accidents, but these are frequently overlooked by the drivers. So this paper demonstrates a wireless forewarning system which will aid to control the speed of the vehicles at speed restricted areas. The whole system is established on the basis of radio frequency (RF) communication. There are two parts of this system named as transmitting unit and receiving unit. Each RF transmitter positioned on the roadside will be transmitting the code signal continuously. Whenever the vehicle enters the range of transmission, the RF receiver which is attached in the vehicle, will receive the signal and will display the information in a LCD monitor by notifying the driver to reduce the speed while going through that area.</p>