The document discusses the use of computers and various software packages in agricultural research. It describes how computers have revolutionized farming practices through activities like weather prediction, soil analysis using GIS, herd management software, and online knowledge sharing. It then lists 10 specific software/packages used for agricultural research and briefly explains their functions, which include tools for data collection, statistical analysis, experimental design, plant breeding, and balanced block design.
The document discusses the use of computers and various software packages in agricultural research. It describes how computers have revolutionized farming practices through activities like weather prediction, soil analysis using GIS, herd management software, and online knowledge sharing. It then lists 10 specific software/packages used for agricultural research and briefly explains their functions, which include tools for data collection, statistical analysis, experimental design, plant breeding, and balanced block design.
The document discusses the use of computers and various software packages in agricultural research. It describes how computers have revolutionized farming practices through activities like weather prediction, soil analysis using GIS, herd management software, and online knowledge sharing. It then lists 10 specific software/packages used for agricultural research and briefly explains their functions, which include tools for data collection, statistical analysis, experimental design, plant breeding, and balanced block design.
The document discusses the use of computers and various software packages in agricultural research. It describes how computers have revolutionized farming practices through activities like weather prediction, soil analysis using GIS, herd management software, and online knowledge sharing. It then lists 10 specific software/packages used for agricultural research and briefly explains their functions, which include tools for data collection, statistical analysis, experimental design, plant breeding, and balanced block design.
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as doc, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 11
1.
Discuss the use of company in data collection and analysis
in Agriculture. The application of the computer in agriculture research originally exploited for the conversion of statistical formula or complex model in digital farm for easy and accurate calculation which are found relatively tedious in manual calculation. the same computers have been used in mechanization, automation and to develop decision support system for taking strategic decision on the agricultural production and protection research. Recently remote sensing and geographic information system has place a major and crucial role in agriculture research especially in the field of yield prediction, suitability of soil for particular crop, and site specific resource allocation of agriculture inputs, etc. Computers and their applications changed the face of most traditional occupations including agriculture. From computerized milk collection and seed estimators to weather predictions and automated farmland assessment, computers have revolutionized farming practices. Technological advances have brought about drastic changes in farming and animal husbandry resulting in a tremendous increase in production capacity. The most common use of computers has been in replacing human effort and intervention in traditional farming machinery and other equipment. In addition, even the support functions for farming such as delivery of machinery, fertilizers and production of raw products have been successfully automated. But all these are just the labour-saving, basic uses that have been around even before the turn of the century. Applications of Computing Technologies in Agriculture 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 pre-empt environmental impact due to climate change and this is where modern technology comes to the rescue. In a nutshell, the uses of computers in agriculture include: ▪ There are softwares which help in the prediction of weather conditions and estimation of agricultural production. ▪ Computers are used for record-keeping of information related to costs involved in production, transport, agricultural processes, and in the estimation and calculation of profit and/or loss. The Internet aids communication among farmers and between farmers and agriculture experts. This leads to an exchange of knowledge and serves as guidance for farmers to improve production and earn profits. ▪ Thanks to the use of software technology, farming practices have evolved into those requiring less effort and leading to greater output. Mechanization has reduced human/animal effort and increased the speed and quality of production. Farmland Assessment: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are being used for developing ranking systems that evaluate land and provide a site assessment to aid what is now known as precision agriculture. These hi-tech, interactive systems provide information based on a variety of factors such as soil conditions, drainage and slope conditions, soil pH and nutrient status, etc. Prior to the use of these systems, farmers were often in the dark about soil output, and unpredictable weather conditions affecting crop quality and profitability. Precision agriculture provides farmers with control by predicting vital information including fertilizer application and problems with drainage, insects, and weeds. Autonomous Farm Equipment and Tractors Automated farm equipment, needless to say, scores over human controlled equipment in terms of consistency and reliability. Engine and machine functions such as transmission and hydraulic power output are controlled using microchips built into the equipment. Guidance technology is already being widely used in self-propelled equipment to aid crop seeding and fertilizer application. Automated feeding systems, computerized milk collection and milking machines have been around since the late 20th century, resulting in better economic yield for the dairy industry as well as livestock production. Farm Software With regard to livestock farming, ready-made computer applications are available to track 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, and revenue and productivity estimation. 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. 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 that provide information on a wide variety of agricultural topics. These avenues serve to reduce the rural digital divide, influence public policies, foster partnerships and 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 at 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 (ICTs) 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. 2. List 10 Software and Package used for Agricultural Research and give their Functions 1. ODK Collect Open Data Kit (ODK) is an open-source software for data collection and management. It is used in farm survey data, ranging from text, pictures and location mapping using GPS according to research needs. It works both online and offline, and updates data regularly once online. ODK supports multiple languages, and it has mobile and desktop versions. It advance version, ODK-X, offers tools for more complex workflows. It allows for JavaScript customisation that gives flexible suite with further features for longitudinal data entry, bidirectional synchronization, and on-device data management. 2. R R is an open source statistical software that has the capabilities of handling data analysis and visualization, and heavy computing. It is programming command line interface (CLI). It has many packages integration which are used for medical researches especially in the areas epidemiological, molecular biological, biostatistics, meta-analyses. R-studio integrated Development Environment (IDE) that contains R tools works the same way Oracle Data Base Engine that uses SQL works. R statistical software tools is relatively new, as it first version was released in 1993 and the version with IDE released in 2011. R is compatible with some other statistical software that uses spreadsheet like Excel, Stars, SAS. 3. STAR STAR is developed with Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) and R Language for crop research (plant breading and generic analysis). The graphic user interface of STAR makes it easy to use. It provides modules for randomization and design of experiment layout for crop research, data management, and statistical data analysis. It has the capabilities to perform descriptive statistics analysis, hypothesis testing of experiments, data management, estimation of breeding values, mating design analysis, multivariate analysis, regression and correlation analysis, stability analysis. 4. PBTools PBTools which means Plant Breeding Tools, is statistical software for plant breeders. It is developed using Eclipse Rich Client Platform with friendly user interface. With the use of PBTools, data from plant breeding can be analysed with speed and accuracy for effective decision making. It an easy to use tool with good user interface PBTools provides modules for single and multi-environment trails analysis (METs). Plant Genotypes are either used as fixed or random effect (factor). The outputs include ANOVA tables, pairwise comparison, and for METs, regression-based stability parameter, Shukla's stability variance, All Effect and Multiplicative Interaction implemented. 5. SPBD 1.0 Statistical Package for Balanced Incomplete Block Designs is a agricultural research software that has the module that can be used to generate a randomized layout of Balanced Incomplete Block Design. It is an easy to use software tool which can be used by students, researchers in field of agriculture as well as in field of statistics for experimental designs or computing genetic parameters for one-way and two-way classified data (ANOVA and ANACOVA). Using the software you can generate BIB designs with replication numbers of up to 30 for symmetric BIB designs and 20 for asymmetric BIB designs. The packages can run analysis of variance ANOVA for treatments adjusted and block adjusted sum of squares, adjusted treatment means, estimated treatment contrasts variance and the contract sum of squares, and so on. 6. SPSS SPSS stands for Statistical Package for Social Science. SPSS, a product of IBM, is a comprehensive software tool for statistical computing and analysis. It has the capability of performing of statistical data analysis task with an easy-to-use graphical user interface. SPSS is best suited for analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANACOVA), and to use it, you need to have good understanding of statistics. 7. Develve Develve is a statistical software that provides a technical environment for fast and easy analysis and interpretation of experimental data in science and research and development (R&D). Use of Develve software helps researchers especially medical and agric researchers to make accurate decisions rather than making false assumptions. It is easy to be used by students as well as professional. 8. InvivoStat It is a powerful tool in animal experiment as does not require large sample sizes. It allows the scientist to get better understanding of the analysis processes and help make informed decision and to design efficient studies in the future. 9. Mini tab Minitab Statistical Software is used for different statistical data analysis starting from basic statistics to professional statistics. It used in predictive mark trend analysis, experimental design, Balanced Incomplete Block Design, ANOVA, ANACOVA, and medical research data analysis. It uses graphic user interface that makes easy to be used by even novice. 10.GraphPad Prism This software is has capabilities that to run t-test, ANAOVA. It is unique from other statistical software in way that it comes with an interpreted result analysis page after the output results. GraphPad Prism also has default feature that combines the analysis and the graphical results in one snapshot, without having to do each separately and to prevent alterations in the data. It is mostly used by biologists, and it helps in performing laboratory research and clinical trial test using the t-test, one- way ANOVA, logic regression model, survival analysis, contingency table, life expectancy table. 11. Statistics Statistics is a suite of analytical software tool with data management, analysis visualization, data mining and machine learning. It enables R programming environment integration which provides additional analytical techniques. Originally developed by StatSoft, but now owned by TIBCO, Statistica is compatible with Excel,IBM SPSS, JMP, Stata files thereby allowing for import and export of data from other tools without copying manually.