Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5. Crop Protection Measure.
These range from simple temperature sum models to complex population
matrices with integrated rate based algorithms to calculate growth, reproduc-
tion and distribution of noxious organisms.
DSS are employed for the
estimation of disease/pest risk
estimation of the necessity for pesticide treatments
forecast of the optimal timing for field assessments
forecast of the optimal timing for pesticide treatments
recommendation of appropriate pesticides
Results of DSS are distributed to the farmers via warning services, using
different transmission media (bulletins, letters, faxes and telephone answering
machines) and via the internet platform www.isip.de (Information System for
Integrated Plant Production) (Röhrig and Sander, 2004). The predictions are
suitable for integrated as well as organic farming.
Meteorological data as well as assessed field data are needed as input for
DSSs. With these input data the decision support systems calculate an output
result, e.g. the date of the first appearance of a pest.
The meteorological data in Germany are provided on the one hand by the
German meteorological service, on the other hand some federal states in
Germany built up their own meteorological networks.
At the moment data of 148 stations of the German meteorological service
and 417 stations owned by the Governmental Crop Protection Services
(GCPS) of federal states are available. In sum these are data of 565 stations
which can be used to run decision support systems.
However, in some agricultural areas, the distance between meteorological
stations (MS) exceeds 60 km.
