Instant Insights: Decision Support Systems in Agriculture

This collection features five peer-reviewed literature reviews on decision support systems (DSS) in agriculture. The first chapter provides a review of DSS in agriculture, whilst addressing the key questions surrounding their use for farm soil and crop management. The different aspects of agricultural DSS design, implementation and operation are also discussed. The second chapter assesses the role of DSS for pest monitoring and management through information technology such as, remote sensing, GIS, spectral indices, image-based diagnostics, and phenology-based degree day models. The third chapter discusses the potential of implementing DSS within the growing mechanisation in greenhouses. It examines differences in development and application of deterministic explanatory and data-based models for real-time control and DSS. The fourth chapter explores the key issues associated with deploying DSS in precision agriculture, whilst also considering their human and social aspects. The chapter also considers how future research on DSS can be moulded to improve productivity in a precision agriculture setting. The final chapter outlines the importance of a participatory approach in DSS development, whilst also offering examples of climate-based DSS for crop and land management, pest and disease management, and livestock (dairy) management.