Expert systems in agriculture
There are several examples of the application of expert system development
methodologies in agricultural disciplines. Wheat Counselor, developed by
Imperial Chemicals in 1984, serves as a buying guide for farmers shopping
for agro-chemicals and aids chemical manufacturing salespeople by determining
what products can and cannot help their customers [13]. EPINFORM
is an expert system for predicting wheat disease epidemics [6].
PEANUT, developed by the National Peanut Research Laboratory of the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1987, offers advice on
irrigation schedules and strategies for control of leafspot and general pests
of florunner peanuts grown in average conditions in Georgia [26]. FARMSYS,
developed by the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the
University of Florida in 1988, provides recommendations related to agricultural
research conducted in Sitiung, West Sumatrain on the Minangkabau,
Javanese, and Sudanese transmigrant communities [11, 7]. Expert systems
have also been applied to support the management of double cropping [10].
These efforts point to the success of exploiting expert systems in agriculture.
However, we are not aware of any attempts to apply the expert system
technique in agroforestry. Therefore, the effort described here is a pioneering
work, and it could be a significant step in the planning and design of
agroforestry systems.