Develop a handheld-based agricultural decision support system

This research project proposes to develop a handheld-based agricultural decision support system (HADSS) for advising the efficient management of irrigation, N fertilizer application and crop rotation in grain cropping systems.

With this expected HADSS, farmers will be capable of electronically recording soil and crop data, retrieving meteorological data through the internet, running and calibrating a series of widely-recognized empirical and biophysical models for agroecosystems, and making decisions in the field, for pursuing site-specific best management practices. The developed HADSS will greatly improve the farmers' capability to adopt the latest and most innovative agricultural research outcomes to help improve cropping management and therefore improve production and minimise losses. The HADSS will have an advantage over currently used CADSS (Computer aided decision support systems) because it can be used in the field rather than in the laboratory.

This research project has been embedded in a large ACIAR project "Improving the management of water and nitrogen for agricultural profitability and environmental quality in the Yellow River basin, China" as an important means of delivering the proposed research outcomes to farmers and agricultural extension officers.

Funded by: UM, CSIRO.

Project Team: Dr Yong Li (UM), Dr. Deli Chen (UM), Dr John Angus (CSIRO).

Contact for further information: Dr Yong Li, yong.li@unimelb.edu.au