Role of decision support systems in potato production

Among the many potato research establishments throughout the world there exists a wealth of expertise in a wide range of aspects of potato culture from agronomy to pathology. Public sector research establishments need to disseminate their scientific findings to the sectors that they serve and so facilitate wealth creation. Some commercial companies have similar aims. Unfortunately, that expertise is largely distributed (unfocused) and rarely, if ever, has it been presented in a coordinated or coherent form. Meanwhile, potato growers have been seeking ways to combine the results of research and development in a form that they can use and certain growers complain that they have no way of accessing the extensive knowledge that exists among experts. Staff at some research establishments have developed models, implemented in computer programmes that simulate several aspects of potato growth and that address some of the problems faced by growers. But, again unfortunately, almost all of these computer programmes are quite unsuited to the non-specialist. Developments in modern information technology and the general acceptance of computers with standard operating systems mean that much of that knowledge and many of these computer programmes can be combined into user-friendly decision support systems (DSS). The knowledge is available and now the technology is also available to present that knowledge. The time is ripe for the development of integrated DSS that will combine usefully whole sectors of knowledge into single advisory packages mounted in computer-based software, that would give potato growers access to the best knowledge available on culture of potato and that would assist with their management decisions. This book presents accounts of several advances made recently in this direction. © Wageningen Academic Publishers The Netherlands, 2004. All rights reserved.