Research Program for Organic Food and Farming in Finland

The Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry started a three-year Research Programme on Organic Food and Farming in 2003. The programme consists of 15 projects on different themes covering the whole food chain and has an annual budget of about 2.2 MEUR. All ongoing projects on organic food and farming in Finland can be found at the web site http://www.agronet.fi/luotu/eng/index.ht

Web-based decision support system for paddy planting management

Precision farming offers numerous benefits and advantages to the farming community for farm productivity improvement. Previous research has led to the development of the offline-based Precision Farmer©. Our current research extends further the previous work by developing a Web Paddy GIS©. The need for this arises due to limitations of Precision Farmer© such as portability, offline system accessibility and affordability by the end users, who include semi-literate farmers. This new system has been developed to function on Windows and Linux platforms. A user satisfaction assessment was conducted on website acceptability, and performance testing was made. This study demonstrates that Web Paddy GIS© can successfully run on both platforms. However, the Linux platform has proven to be superior to Windows, based on factors such as CPU usage, speed and user satisfaction. This paper presents a novel management tool of Web-based precision farming for the semi-literate paddy farming community of a developing country. The development of the Web Paddy GIS© is very useful for paddy farmers, farm managers, decision makers and researchers

GAOS: Spatial optimisation of crop and nature within agricultural fields

This paper proposes and demonstrates a spatial optimiser that allocates areas of inefficient machine manoeuvring to field margins thus improving the use of available space and supporting map-based Controlled Traffic Farming. A prototype web service (GAOS) allows farmers to optimise tracks within their fields and explore planning alternatives prior to downloading the plans to their RTK GPS-guided steering system. GAOS retrieves accurate data on field geometry from a geo-database. Via a web interface, the farmer sets options regarding operation properties, potential locations for field margins and headlands, etc. Next, an optimisation script that employs an open source geospatial library (osgeo.ogr) is called. The objective function considers costs involved with un-cropped areas, turning at headlands and subsidies received for field margins. Optimisation results are stored in a database and are available for (1) viewing via the web interface, (2) downloading to the GPS-guided steering system and (3) communication to third parties

Pengaruh Adopsi Teknologi PHSL (Pemupukan Hara Spesifik Lokasi) Berbasis Pertanian Presisi terhadap Pendapatan Petani Padi di Desa Jembungan, Kabupaten Boyolali, Jawa Tengah

The highly increase of crop production in the future will be a compulsion and utilization of field will be more intensive. Therefore, precise pescription of crop fertilization is required. Site Specific Nutrient Management (SSNM) application is an innovative technology for rice farming through fertilization recommendation based on the principles of precision farming. The SSNM web-based application was developed by IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) in Philippines in collaboration with Agricultural Research & Development Council (LITBANG Pertanian) .The aim of this research is to study the impact, paritcularly on farmers' income, in utilizing web-based version of SSNM. There was a significant differences in fertilization cost between the USAge of SSNM-based farming system and manual-based farming system.. The manual based fertilization cost is Rp 23,078. (12.93 % of total cost) whereas the SSNM-based fertilization cost is Rp 320,065 ( 20.62% of total cost. The application of SSNM was able to increase average rice production about 314.38 kg / hectare and thus farmers income raised to Rp 1,100,328 / hectare

Organic grassland: the foundation stone of organic livestock farming

In organic farming, the components of the whole farm system interact closely and grassland plays the central role in this intricate web, including the arable cropping phase. Grassland is important particularly in relation to nitrogen supply via its influence on N-fixation, soil organic matter, structure and biological activity and it also has a major role to play in restricting the build-up of arable weeds and soil-borne crop diseases in arable rotations. Ruminant livestock share this central role with grassland on most successful organic farms, and the success of the livestock enterprise is intimately tied up with the management and productivity of the grassland

Challenges of Organic Arable Farming - 6th module: Recovery and final synthesis

This module summarizes the online course "Challenges of Organic Arable Farming". This module is targeting students, farmers, advisors. The module is based on a PowerPoint presentation containing a theoretical background and supported by related specific tools (practice abstracts, leaflets, guidelines, data calculation tools, videos, books, reports, web pages) taken from the OK-Net Arable Knowledge platform (www.organic-farmknowledge.org). All modules Challenges of Organic Arable Farming 1st module: Strategies to enhance soil fertility and assessment of soil fertility and quality (https://orgprints.org/35291/) Challenges of Organic Arable Farming 2nd module: Fertilization strategies to enhance nutrient availability in organic arable crops (https://orgprints.org/35292) Challenges of Organic Arable Farming 3rd module: Monitoring, preventive and curative measures for pest and disease management (https://orgprints.org/35293/) Challenges of Organic Arable Farming 4th module: Technical tools, strategies and machineries to tackle weeds in organic arable farming (https://orgprints.org/35294/) Challenges of Organic Arable Farming 5th module: Crops specific problems and potential solutions in cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables (https://orgprints.org/35295/

Dependable workflow management system for smart farms

Smart Farming is a new and emerging domain representing the application of modern technologies into agriculture, leading to a revolution of this classic domain. CLUeFARM is a web platform in the domain of smart farming which main purpose is to help farmers to easily manage and supervise their farms from any device connected to the Internet, offering some useful services. Cloud technologies evolved a lot in recent years and based on this growth, microservices are more and more used. If for the server side, the scalability and reusability are solved in high proportion by microservices, on the client side of web applications, there was no independent solution until the recent emergence of web components. They can be seen as the microservices of the front-end. Microservices and web components are usually used isolated one of each other. This paper proposes and presents the functionality and implementation of a dependable workflow management service by using an end-to-end microservices approach

Landscape aesthetics: Assessing the general publics’ rural landscape preferences

working paperThe central aim of this study was to gain greater insights into the factors that affect individuals’ preferences for a variety of landscape settings. To achieve this aim, this paper derived dependent variables (based on a factor analysis of respondents mean ratings of 47 landscape images) representing 5 different landscape categories. These variables were then utilized in separate OLS regression models to examine the effect of personal characteristics, residential location and environmental value orientations on landscape preferences. First in terms of visual amenity the results suggest that the general public have the strongest preference for landscapes with water related features as its dominant attribute which was followed by cultural landscapes. Second the results also demonstrate how there is significant heterogeneity in landscape preferences as both personal characteristics and environmental value orientations were found to strongly influence preferences for all the landscape types examined. Moreover the effect of these variables often differed significantly across the various landscape groupings. In terms of land use policy, given the diversity of preferences a one size fits all approach will not meet the general publics’ needs and desires

Gender, Power and Property: “In my own right”

working paperWomen on farms in Ireland are a subject of feminist analysis for five decades. Salient themes are the constraints of patriarchal agriculture (O'Hara 1997; Shortall, 2004), the invisibility of women's farm work (Viney 1968; O’Hara 1998), gender inequalities in ownership of farm assets (Watson et al. 2009) and increasing professionalisation of farmwomen outside of agriculture (Kelly and Shortall 2002; Hanrahan 2007). Most women enter farming through marriage and family ties. Land ownership is identified by Shortall (2004) as the critical factor underpinning male domination of the occupational category ‘farmer’ and considerable power differentials between men and women in family farming. This is an area that requires further investigation. Our analysis, framed by theoretical models of feminisation and empowerment, explores cases where male farm property ownership in Ireland is disrupted in conventional and non-conventional agricultural settings. Do these cases provide evidence of new opportunities for women to become farm property owners, and in what contexts? What consequences do these opportunities have for farmwomen’s empowerment and agency? How does women’s farm property ownership disturb rural gender relations in the context of the family farm?Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Programm

Explaining the non-economic behaviour of farm foresters: The effect of productivist and lifestyle motivations

working paperCurrently rates of planting lag far behind levels that would be expected from a comparison of the returns from farm forestry with competing agricultural alternatives. Previous research has focused on the role of economic factors such as government subsidies, returns from competing agricultural alternatives and structural farm factors in explaining the decision to afforest. By examining the role of farming attitudes and motivations, the aim of this paper is to provide a framework for better understanding farmers’ behaviour in relation to the decision to enter into forestry. The results provide rare quantitative evidence that strong lifestyle and productivist motivations significantly affect farmers’ behaviour. Environmental values and perceptions regarding the extent to which forestry is seen as a component of a natural landscape were two further factors found to affect the probability of participation. We conclude that the design of policies aimed at encouraging changes in farm activities ought to be guided by a better understanding of the motivations and attitudes of farm operators