ABSTRACT
The concept of Agriculture products and yield information system has been described as the integration and utilization of information technology system in farming related operations. Agriculture is a traditional trade and operations involved in production, having largely remained habitual in nature. Traditional methods of farming incorporated little or no use of information technology, despite its potential for dramatically increasing operations efficiency. The incorporation of information technologies into farming involves the integration of diverse technologies, with each capable of positively impacting the efficiency of all agricultural activities, thereby promoting sustainable agricultural practice. This project is aimed at providing a broad base, easily accessible knowledge base for farmers, researchers and other stakeholders in agriculture business to enable them improve individually and collectively the practice of agriculture. The project was developed using the Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) methodology and implemented with Hypertext Pre-Processor (PHP version 5.4.3) as scripting language, Asynchronous JavaScript and Extensible Markup Language as the search engine development tool, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML version 5), Cascaded Style Sheet (CSS version 3) and MYSQL (version 5.5.24) as relational database server. The study adopted a multiple regression model for the estimation of agricultural crop yields.
Chapter 1:
Introduction
1.0 Introduction
The advances in information technology have become central to the process of socio-economic development. Information technology offers new ways of exchanging information, and transacting business, changes the nature of the financial and other service sectors and provides efficient means of using the human and institutional capabilities of countries in both the public and private sectors. The world is rapidly moving towards knowledge-based structures and information societies, which comprise networks of individuals, associations, firms and countries that are linked electronically and in interdependent relationships.
The term “e-Farming” has been described as the integration and utilization of information technology in farming related operations. The incorporation of information technology into agriculture involves the integration of diverse technologies, with each capable of positively impacting the efficiency of farming activities.
Access to technology like computers, smart phones and the internet is gradually becoming common feature in rural areas as well as wireless network availability. Agricultural productivity and yield information system has been described as an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agriculture in rural and urban areas through involvement of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). More specifically, this information system involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways of using information and communications technology in the rural and urban domains. High and sustained rates of agricultural growth, largely driven by productivity growth, will be necessary if the governments are to accelerate poverty reduction and improve the income of farmers. This is because agricultural growth has powerful leverage effects on the rest of the economy, especially in the early stages of development and economic transformation. Agriculture should be encouraged to have accounts for large shares in national income, employment, and foreign trade. Growth in agriculture would enable general patterns of development that are employment
intensive and hence favorable to the poor. Agricultural growth also benefits both rural and urban people by providing more food and raw materials at lower prices; freeing up foreign exchange for the importation of strategic industrial and capital goods; providing growing amounts of capital and labour for industrial development; providing a growing domestic market for people in that society; and reducing poverty by increasing labour, productivity and employment in rural areas. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) would not only determine the market share and profitability of individual in tomorrow’s global economy, but it also has a huge impact on future generations of workers and on a country’s economic prospects.
The main phases of the agricultural productivity and yield are: land selection and preparation, crop cultivation, water management, fertilizer application, pest management, harvesting, post- harvest handling, transportation of food stuff and food products, packaging and food preservation, food processing and food quality management, food storage and marketing. All stakeholders of agricultural industries need information and knowledge about these phases to manage them efficiently. Any system applied for acquiring information and knowledge for making decisions in any industry should deliver accurate, complete and concise information on time. The information provided by the system must be in a user-friendly form, cost-effective and well protected from unauthorized accesses (Wikipedia, 2013a). More specifically, it might be said to include preventing adverse effects to soil, water, biodiversity, surrounding or downstream resources as well as to those working or living on the farms or in neighboring areas.
Productivity gains in the agricultural industries have historically been driven by the adoption of new technical products and processes. It has been the role of extension workers to ensure that farmers hear about these processes and technologies, and usually it has been governments who have funded the extension effort. With the rapid increase in the complexity and the technology of farming, there is now a need to improve the skills and education of our farmer’s productivity and yield using information system, through a 24/7 accessible facilities. More so, it has become imperative to weigh the possible factors affecting crop yields such as weather (temperature, humidity, heat index, etc.), fertilizer, size of farm land, soil type, soil humidity, type of seedling, soil fertility (change in land use), and then adopt a functional model (in this case, the study
adopts a multiple linear regression model) that proves suitable for estimating agricultural crop yields.
1.1 Statement of Problem
1. Farmers lack easily accessible agriculture information for enhancing productivity and yield.
2. . Information on new technologies and inputs which enhance products are not readily available and accessible to farmers.
3. Most farmers do not have good means of estimating the quantum of their production and avenues for selling them.
1.2 Aims and Objective of the Study
The aim of this research is to provide agricultural information and knowledge on estimating products of yields of crops. The specific objectives are to develop a system that should be able to
1. Provide agricultural information for farmers in Nigeria.
2. Estimate the right quantity of fertilizer for a given farm size.
3. Estimate expenditure cost for cultivating a piece of land.
4. Enable farmers use GPS device to estimate land areas and other parameters.
1.3 Significance of Study
This work provides broad base information on how to plant crops in our various areas using the same fragmented pieces of land to achieve higher productivity.
The major benefits of this research are:
1. It serves as a repository of knowledge for users; the users of the system will be able to get information on estimation using GPS on this system.
2. It enables all stakeholders in agriculture to access this work online anytime of the day, all year round and also enables them to do the necessary yield estimate that they want to do.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
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