The application of computer In agriculture Is Increasingly Important. In today's times, agriculture Is not Just about crop production or livestock farming and associated activities. The challenges brought forth by ecological factors affecting the environment need to be a major consideration for any kind of farming activity. Farmers need to preempt environmental impact due to climate change and this is where modern technology comes to the rescue.
E-Agriculture is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes. More specifically, e-Agriculture involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use information and communication technologies (IT) in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. E-Agriculture Is a relatively new term and we fully expect Its scope to change and evolve as our understanding of the area grows.E-Agriculture Is one of the action lines Identified In the declaration and plan of action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WAIS).
The "Tunis Agenda for the Information Society," published on 18 November 2005 and emphasizes the leading facilitating roles that UN agencies need to play in the implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the united Nations (FAA) has been assigned the responsibility of organizing activities related to the action line under C. 7 CIT Applications on E-Agriculture.The main phases of the agriculture industry include crop cultivation, water management, fertilizer application, perforation, pest management, harvesting, post-harvest handling, rainspout of food products, packaging, food preservation, food processing/value addition, quality management, food safety, food storage, and food marketing.
All stakeholders of agriculture industry need Information and knowledge about these phases to manage them efficiently. Any system applied for getting information and knowledge for making decisions In any Industry should deliver accurate, complete, concise Information In time or on time.The Information provided by the system must be in user-friendly form, easy to access, cost-effective and well protected from unauthorized accesses. BODY The office automation is application of computers, computer networks, telephone networks, and other office automation tool such as photocopy machines, scanners, printers, cleaning equipment, and electronic security systems to increase the productivity of organizations. There are many governments, private and non- government organizations Involved In agriculture sector and rural development. They all have to work together to give better service to farming community.
Therefore, application of office automation is one of the solutions to enhance the efficiency and imputer applications such as MS Office, Internet Explorer, Offence. Org and other tailor-made office automation software packages are providing unlimited potential to organizations and individuals to fulfill their day to day data processing requirements to give an efficient service to their customers. Global Positioning System In agriculture, the use of the Global Positioning System provides benefits in ego- fencing, map-making and surveying.GAPS receivers dropped in price over the years, making it more popular for civilian use. With the use of GAPS, civilians can produce impel yet highly accurate digitized map without the help of a professional cartographer. In Kenya, for example, the solution to prevent an elephant bull from wandering into farms and destroying precious crops was to tag the elephant with a device that sends a text message when it crosses a ego-fence.
Using the technology of SMS and GAPS, the elephant can roam freely and the authorities are alerted whenever it is near the farm. 2] Computer-controlled devices (automated systems) Automatic milking systems are computer controlled stand alone systems that milk the dairy cattle without human labor. The complete automation of the milking process is controlled by an agricultural robot, complex herd management software, and specialized computers. Automatic milking eliminates the farmer from the actual milking process, allowing for more time for supervision of the farm and the herd.
Farmers can also improve herd management by using the data gathered by the computer.By analyzing the effect of various animal feeds on milk yield, farmers may adjust accordingly to obtain optimal milk yields. Since the data is available down to individual level, each cow may be tracked and examined, and the farmer may be alerted when there are unusual changes that could mean sickness or injuries Farm Software With regard to livestock farming, ready-made computer applications are available to track individual animals, storing and evaluating information such as age, health records, milk production, offspring productivity, and reproductive cycle status.This is often called herd recording. Similarly, most farm accounting software and other computer applications in agriculture provide services for record keeping, simulation of prediction-based models using that data, revenue and productivity estimation and porting to aid in making decisions.
Most farm software vendors provide you with an option to customize their applications to the specific needs of your farm or ranch.Internet Forums, Social Networking and Online Knowledge Bases Any business in the world that you can think of, has benefited from the advent and global reach of the Internet and related communication technologies (mobile computing, e-commerce etc. ). Agriculture is no different. Imagine leveraging the power of the Internet to connect with farmers, agriculturists and agricultural scientists and other experts parade across the globe from the comfort of your own farmland or ranch.
There are several forums and social networking sites on the Internet where farmers can connect with other farmers and farming experts and exchange know-how. In addition, there are several learning repositories serving as knowledge bases to provide information on a wide variety of agricultural topics. These avenues serve to connect all stakeholders across the agricultural value chain. For instance, a farmer can easily seek out and connect with an agricultural entrepreneur and begin the exchange of ideas or business proposals.
Information such as price review for grain and livestock, pest information, real-time weather information (precipitation, temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, soil moisture and soil temperature) in any part of the world is literally available on one's fingertips. E-agriculture An emerging field of agricultural practices, e-agriculture focuses on coming up with innovative ways and best practices to use the existing information and communication technologies (Acts) for sustainable agricultural development and food safety standards, particularly in rural areas.E-agriculture encompasses other related technological fields such as agricultural informatics, agricultural development and business. It aims to deploy all available technologies (computers, mobile computing, satellite systems, smart cards) for the empowerment of farmers and strengthening of partnerships across the food value chain.
The uses of computers in agriculture do have some real constraints such as, the lack of hardware and software infrastructure, training and skills, and research priorities. However, once these are overcome, the use of computers transcends automation and software application.In fact, it could be instrumental in bridging the rural digital divide and bringing prosperity to agriculturists not only in the United States, but also in other developing and emerging economies around the world. Agriculture applications include: ; Electronic field notes Grain weight and moisture for research trials Geopolitical information for integration into GIS Crop management ; Integrated pest management Animal identification Agricultural managers use Juniper Systems mobile computing solutions to improve productivity, maintain data integrity, and facilitate awareness in work flow operations.Juniper Systems offers a wide range of solutions focused on agriculture research, crop protection, and animal identification. Juniper Systems and our business partners work hand-in-hand with agricultural professionals to provide intuitive field computing solutions to meet mobile computing needs.Key Benefits of Agriculture Solutions: Select from a wide range of ultra-rugged handheld computers specifically designed to meet the needs of agriculture ; Integrate rugged handheld with sensors such as GAPS, plot harvest data systems, bar code scanners, RIFF, and cellular data idem ; Customize product through integrated sensors, communication devices, or software ; Run standard off-the-shelf Windows Mobile application specific solutions.
