Wither agricultural DSS?

Abstract

Agricultural decision support systems (DSS) may be argued to have passed sequentially through phases of unbelief, euphoria and disappointment and to be passing into either a phase of maturity with realistic expectations of the technology or to abandonment. This paper proposes that agricultural DSS in their widest sense still have a significant role to play in shaping land use and management to meet society's changing requirements. The paper draws its conclusions from the experiences of a team developing farming-systems models and from market research into the commercial potential of such models as DSS.

Promoting sustainable intensification in precision agriculture: review of decision support systems development and strategies

“…During the last 30 years, research and development has produced a large number of AgriDSSs, but most of them have not been used appropriately in practice (e.g., Aubert et al 2012;Eastwood et al 2012;Korte et al 2012Korte et al , 2013Mackrell et al 2009;Matthews et al 2008;McCown 2002;Rossi et al 2014;Van Meensel et al 2012). Aubert et al (2012), for example, claim that factors influencing the adoption of innovations are tightly linked to work practices that are more complex than just the mere perspectives of technology acceptance or diffusion of innovations, while Fountas et al (2005) point out that time requirement, lack of technical knowledge and cost are the most important impediments in the implementation of AgriDSS in PA. One central failure issue is the fact that researchers often focus on one specific area or problem, while the farmers must have a holistic view of the crop production with a wide range of problems (Rossi et al 2014).…”

“…At the very core of all changes towards a more sustainable agriculture are the individual decision-makers as the decisions of each farmer will have positive or negative effects on sustainable intensification (Matthews et al 2008;Van Meensel et al 2012). In the agricultural sector, it is the farmers who have to transform facts and figures into daily work practices.…”

“…However, current AgriDSS available to farmers are not used to their full potential and are not adapted to the trade-offs and high complexity characterizing farmers' decision making (e.g., Eastwood et al 2012;Mackrell et al 2009;Van Meensel et al 2012). This has been called the ''problem of implementation'' (e.g., Mackrell et al 2009;Matthews et al 2008;Rossi et al 2014) within the agricultural domain. The uptake and acceptance are low, partly because existing AgriDSS are based on what scientists and ICT system developers consider as necessary knowledge that should be implemented in the decision support, but in reality they fail to capture the tacit knowledge and practical needs of farmers.…”

“…It should be pointed out that the single unifying predictor of success or failure of an AgriDSS, which has been put forth by multiple authors, is the extent to which the end users are involved in the ICT system development process. The necessity of a user-centered design (UCD) approach has been stressed by, e.g., EIP-Agri Focus group report (2015), Cerf et al (2012), Mȃruşter et al (2008a, b), Matthews et al (2008), Thorburn et al (2011), andVan Meensel et al (2012). User-centered design is an approach within the field of human-computer interaction (HCI), aiming to develop and adapt the ICT system based on the users' needs as well as the context of use, rather than forcing the users to change their behavior to accommodate to the ICT system from a top-down perspective (e.g., Benyon 2014;Dix et al 2004;Hartson and Pyla 2012;Preece et al 2002;Rogers et al 2011).…”

Relevancy and role of whole-farm models in supporting smallholder farmers in planning their agricultural season

“…However, the use of modelling to assist farmers in their decision-making has been problematic (McCown, 2002;Jakku and Thorburn, 2010;Matthews et al, 2008). Rather than providing ready-made solutions, farm management models, used in interaction with a researcher or advisor, aim to help a farmer consider his or her options by comparing and discussing alternative production strategies (Le Gal et al, 2011;Rodriguez et al, 2014).…”