Developing decision support systems (DSS) for farm soil and crop management

Description

This chapter provides a review of decision support systems (DSS) in agriculture and addresses several key questions about them. Why are they important, and why are they necessary for the future? What kind of systems currently exist? Different aspects of agricultural DSS design, implementation and operation are covered. These aspects include the fundamentally spatial consideration of DSSs, the need for and use of sensor technology within such systems, modelling and software components, system-operator interfaces, the potential (and current) use of DSSs for directly controlling agricultural management, and a discussion of what is needed to make DSSs more successful and widely-used in agriculture.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Spatial data and sensor requirements for DSS 3 Models and software for DSS 4 DSS user interface design, actuators and systems 5 Decision support or decision-making? 6 What reasons are there for low uptake of DSS? 7 What will DSSs of the future look like? 8 Summary 9 Where to look for further information 10 References