Spatial decision support for selecting tropical crops and forages in uncertain environments

Farmers in the developing world frequently find themselves in uncertain and risky environments: often having to make decisions based on very little information. Functional models are needed to support farmers tactical decisions. In order to develop an appropriate model, a comparison is carried out o...

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Main Author: O'Brien, Rachel Anne
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Curtin University 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1478
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author O'Brien, Rachel Anne
author_facet O'Brien, Rachel Anne
author_sort O'Brien, Rachel Anne
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Farmers in the developing world frequently find themselves in uncertain and risky environments: often having to make decisions based on very little information. Functional models are needed to support farmers tactical decisions. In order to develop an appropriate model, a comparison is carried out of potential modelling approaches to address the question of what to grow where. A probabilistic GlS model is identified in this research as a suitable model for this purpose. This model is implemented as the stand-alone Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) CaNaSTA, based on trial data and expert knowledge available for Central America and forage crops. The processes and methods used address many of the problems encountered with other agricultural DSS and SDSS. CaNaSTA shows significant overlap with recommendations from other sources. In addition, CaNaSTA provides details on the likely adaptation distribution of each species at each location, as well as measures of sensitivity and certainty. The combination of data and expert knowledge in a spatial environment allows spatial and aspatial uncertainty to be explicitly modelled. This is an original approach to the problem of helping farmers decide what to plant where.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-14782017-02-20T06:38:22Z Spatial decision support for selecting tropical crops and forages in uncertain environments O'Brien, Rachel Anne forage selection developing countries forages in tropical agriculture Farmers in the developing world frequently find themselves in uncertain and risky environments: often having to make decisions based on very little information. Functional models are needed to support farmers tactical decisions. In order to develop an appropriate model, a comparison is carried out of potential modelling approaches to address the question of what to grow where. A probabilistic GlS model is identified in this research as a suitable model for this purpose. This model is implemented as the stand-alone Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) CaNaSTA, based on trial data and expert knowledge available for Central America and forage crops. The processes and methods used address many of the problems encountered with other agricultural DSS and SDSS. CaNaSTA shows significant overlap with recommendations from other sources. In addition, CaNaSTA provides details on the likely adaptation distribution of each species at each location, as well as measures of sensitivity and certainty. The combination of data and expert knowledge in a spatial environment allows spatial and aspatial uncertainty to be explicitly modelled. This is an original approach to the problem of helping farmers decide what to plant where. 2004 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1478 en Curtin University fulltext
spellingShingle forage selection
developing countries
forages in tropical agriculture
O'Brien, Rachel Anne
Spatial decision support for selecting tropical crops and forages in uncertain environments
title Spatial decision support for selecting tropical crops and forages in uncertain environments
title_full Spatial decision support for selecting tropical crops and forages in uncertain environments
title_fullStr Spatial decision support for selecting tropical crops and forages in uncertain environments
title_full_unstemmed Spatial decision support for selecting tropical crops and forages in uncertain environments
title_short Spatial decision support for selecting tropical crops and forages in uncertain environments
title_sort spatial decision support for selecting tropical crops and forages in uncertain environments
topic forage selection
developing countries
forages in tropical agriculture
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1478