Decision support systems in agricultural industry perspective

Abstract

Recent years in agriculture, there have been a lot of constraints such as climatic change, water scarcity, shrinking of lands due to human encroachment, labour shortage, soil nutrition, pests and diseases etc., which leads to decline in agricultural productivity. In order to feed the growing-hungry population, there is a need for strategic and tactical management in agriclure to increase the yield. Decision Making Process (DMP) plays a vital role in meeting the population requirements. Leveraging Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Agriculture aids in the development of decision making information system called Decision Support System (DSS) that helps the farmers to take suitable decisions in a timely manner for maximizing productivity and reducing inputs and their costs. DSS is integrated with simulation models, databases for soil, weather and crops, statistics and other information technologies. It is a relevant, timely, user-friendly system to assist and manage crop cultivation and suggests the appropriate site-specific agronomic practice and recommendations to the farmers without affecting the environment. Parameters such as weather, soil properties, water level and pest and disease incidence are taken into consideration in DSS thereby facilitating the crop management. The main goal of DSS is to increase the agricultural productivity by utilizing the available limited resources. This paper reviews the DSS in existence and their benefits in agriculture.