Decision Support
In an agricultural context a Decision Support System (DSS) is an interactive software system that collects and processes a variety of inputs (raw data, eg. from farm-deployed sensors, chemical data, crop data, pathogen data) in order to present to the farm manager a solution to an arising problem, such as disease pressure, frost or the need to irrigate. As the name suggests a DSS is not an automated decision making tool - it helps the manager to make better decisions!
In a complex farming operation many decisions need to be taken almost every day: when to spray, if and how much to irrigate, what to do against frost, when to harvest, etc. Many of these decisions need to take a large amount of parameters into account which can range from simple to pretty complex ones.
Farm managers need to respond to a number of crucial questions:
- Is disease pressure high enough to justify the application of a protective spray?
- What is the current water balance? Do I need to irrigate? How much?
- Particularly when it comes to the prevention of disease and the optimal nutrition and irrigation of your crop decisions are often not easily come by: is disease pressure already high
To properly answer these questions and take timely action not only data is needed, but also vast knowledge on the behavior of crops, the development characteristics of fungi and insects, the rate of evapotranspiration or the current soil moisture at root level.
ADCON has the solution!
An ADCON Decision Support System comprises of two equally important components: the monitoring station in your field, equipped with the sensors you need, and the addVANTAGE Pro software on your computer or the server of your hosting provider.
Sensors monitor weather and soil conditions in your field, and the ADCON RTU delivers this data right to your desk. ADCON’s addVANTAGE Pro software processes this data and runs it through a variety of mathematical models to present you with a suggestion on what to do. This can be a treatment recommendation, an irrigation suggestion, an alarm against an imminent frost event or the like – all with the intention of enabling you to take action before it is too late.
The algorithms integrated into addVANTAGE Pro ADCON Telemetry were developed and validated by leading academic, public sector, and industry researchers. They offer a wide range of settings in order to perfectly adjust them to your specific crop varieties, weather characteristics, taking even past events into account.
The ADCON Decision Support System helps you to properly assess the following situations:
Soil Temperature
- planting timing (seed/transplants)
- seed emergence
- nematode activity
Leaf Wetness
- foliar spray timing
- spray records (performance)
Temperature
- foliar spray timing (leaf scorch/phytotoxicity)
- spray records
- plant stress/spray performance (esp. herbicides)
Precipitation
- general labor scheduling
- spray timing
- spray records (performance)
- spray wash-off
Relative Humidity
- general labor scheduling
- foliar spray timing
- spray records (performance)
- pruning timing (disease risk - i.e. Eutypa)
Wind
- general labor scheduling
- spray timing
- spray records (drift injury/performance)
- plant injury/stress
- irrigation
Various meteorological sensors
Sensors you need to run plant protection models
Agricultural Risk Management
A short outline of benefits of ADCON systems regarding modern Agricultural Risk Management.