Possibilities of decision supporting in agroculture with the help of the Wielkopolska Region Internet Based Agrometeorological Information Service

Abstract

The survey carried out within farmers of the Wielkopolska Region in 2003/2004 indicated that there is a strong demand on the agrometeorological information which could support the decision process in farms. As a result, the scientists working at the Agrometeorology Department of the Agricultural University of Poznań, Poland, establish relation with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling of Warsaw University (ICM UW) to assess if there is possible to use the meso-scale weather forecast model to create an agrometeorological information service. The practical effect of this activity is the Internet based Wielkopolska Region Service of Agrometeorological Information (WISIA). Within information presented in the service are weather forest for 60-hours ahead (made by the ICM UW) as well as many other agrometeorological advices for farmers prepared on the basis of the aforementioned weather forest and measured data of three automatic weather stations located on arable fi elds in the Wielkopolska Region. The agrometeorological forecast consists of: forecast of cumulative degree days and indicated dates of some agriculture and orchard pests occurrence; precipitation – daily sum and cumulative precipitation; potential and real evapotranspiration; climatic water balance; indicated periods of dew occurrence, global radiation and sunshine duration; forecast of conditions suitable for carrying out the chemical plant protection procedures; as well as forecast of probability of the Phytophtora infestance occurrence (prepared by the IUNG Puławy). All information is calculated for each of the weather forecast grid, with the resolution of a commune area. The WISIA service is available free of charge on the Website www.agrometeo.pl since the beginning of 2006. The most important information related to the WISIA service and possibilities of their use in farming systems are presented in this article