| Enterprise GIS
Creating coordinated data tools for decision making
By: Ian Shaw Agricultural production risk management is an increasingly complex activity involving government, the private sector, and individual producers. Growers in both Canada and the United States are confronting new legislative and business demands brought on by changing markets and economic pressures. While these changes are intended to create price stability and maximize free-market performance, the road to implementing these programs is not void of challenges.
In the United States, the new Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act (1996) has introduced reforms that add complexity to a farmer's risk management needs. Producers will have increased production flexibility with the elimination of acreage idling programs and expanded contract crop opportunities. Individual producers can also waive eligibility for emergency crop loss assistance for any crop they have not insured. However, income risk may also be increased with the introduction of a multi-year production flexibility contract using fixed contract prices.
Similar free-market risks confront Canadian growers as well, with the reshaping of the traditional agricultural infrastructure in the country. Already many non-productive rail lines have been shut down with some predictions that as high as 40% of the track in western Canada will be abandoned. The country elevator system is being restructured accordingly in favor of strategically located high volume terminals and other grain handling facilities. At the same time, the incentive to establish value-added processing industries in rural communities has been restored. Existing facilities are being expanded alongside newly created canola crushing plants, feed processors, and meat packaging plants that increase the projected demand for high quality harvest inputs. Individual farmers are responding by demanding more productive seed varieties, sustainable chemical input strategies and a more equal partnership with suppliers to their farm operation and purchasers of their on-farm product.
To effectively anticipate change in this dynamic environment, agriculture input suppliers and grain companies are increasingly looking to geographic information systems (GIS) technology. Many producers are also testing precision farming systems to improve the linkage between on-farm production and profitability. Unfortunately, while the use of such technological advancements can strengthen the relationship farmers have with their agri-business partners, the linkage between precision farming technology and GIS-based business systems is not well understood by most growers. Focusing on the interface between these two technologies is important in order to establish a comprehensive agricultural technology strategy for individual farm operations and agri-business. What is GIS?
Geographic information system software enables you to analyze spatial relationships over a large area by linking tabular information to a reference map (e.g., the impact of pivot irrigation on potato yields). Most precision farming systems incorporate some data mapping functions, however, they do not support the more complex spatial analysis routines built into commercial GIS packages. These include overlaying two or more layers of information to see correlations (e.g., soil capability and yield) and buffer analyses (e.g., calculating the total acres of RSW with 5 kilometer (km) of a proposed elevator facility).
By customizing these core spatial analysis tools, it is possible to develop an agri-business "application" that performs specific activities and accesses data from various sources. As an example, an agrologist might use a custom monitoring application to determine which canola growing regions are at risk for Sclerotinia. Using current crop insurance disease occurrence reports as well as real-time climate data, this application is enabled by the analysis functions of a GIS to highlight threatened regions. Enterprise Agricultural Geomatics
When a business introduces GIS to all parts of the organization, it is pursuing an "enterprise GIS strategy." Adopted by value-added processors, crop insurance corporations, crop protection manufacturers or agricultural lending institutions, this approach creates a coordinated set of tools for decision making and an integrated agricultural production database. Some specific business functions that these tools make possible include:
• Whole market and market share analysis for individual crop varieties.
• Product sales and distribution planning based on analysis of planned and actual acres planted, weekly crop condition assessments and regional farm practices data in addition to customer profiles and purchase histories.
• Advanced yield analysis and forecasting facilitated by historical trend data in combination with weekly crop condition information at the township, municipal and provincial market levels.
• Distribution facility siting and location optimization working from a spatial analysis of actual farm locations, transportation networks, and future business potential.
Warburton's Limited, the third largest bakery in the United Kingdom, committed to a business plan incorporating this technology in recent efforts to manage the production of Canadian wheat flour for their premium, high-quality products. The Bolton, UK bakery launched this technology as part of an "identity preserved" (IP) contract growing program in the Canadian Provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Identity preserve growing programs represent an increasingly common contract arrangement throughout North America. Currently, this approach is used by most major value-added processors, including Anheuser Busch (barley), Frito Lay (corn), and Nestle Simplot (potatoes). This contracting approach has wide-scale applicability for organizations trying to manage the quality of their processing inputs.
Producers who participate in Warburton's IP program are paid a premium for their Hard Red Spring Wheat contract. In return, growers are required to maintain a comprehensive management plan containing information about growing conditions, farm practices and other factors which are maintained in a database environment and linked to individual field locations through an enterprise GIS technology developed by Linnet Geomatics (LGI), with headquarters in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In addition to maintaining information on their producers and growing contracts, LGI applications allow Warburtons' field personnel to carryout advanced flour milling and baking performance tests on each year's harvest. This data is combined with the production information to enable Warburtons to develop a grain shipping program that is based on known "productivity inventory" characteristics and their flour usage at bakery sites in the UK.
The current GIS application developed by LGI, assists with the selection of contracts to fulfill this shipping program as well as the establishment of call forward dates and grain car delivery locations. Future applications will include advanced agronomic analysis functionality to share information back with Warburtons' growers, providing grower-participants another benefit. This data will also help Warburtons refine the varieties and regions as they relate to the bakery's long-term product quality-to target for future contracts.
Benefits from applying this enterprise GIS solution are apparent to both growers and Warburtons. The comprehensive database created from this program incorporates in-field production information and other business data that makes it possible to overcome business dilemmas encountered at every step along the production-to-market cycle. Precision Farming
In contrast to the steps taken by Warburtons and their IP growers, the current emphasis throughout the precision farming industry has placed the focus of interest on improving on-machinery hardware systems, resolving GPS data collection processes, and improving the accuracy of variable rate application equipment. Some effort has been made to improve the existing analytical capability of most precision farming packages. For the most part, however, these systems remain too complicated for non-technical users and lack the integration required to provide a useful management tool on all farms.
Future development activities at LGI address these shortcomings by focusing on the development of a comprehensive agronomic management environment that ties together these technologies. Marketed as Croplands-The Systemª, this enhanced management system will:
• Interface with existing Yield Monitors and variable rate applicator systems
• Incorporate proven methodologies for analyzing crop yield, soil, and production information.
• Establish links to farm financial, accounting, and cash flow modules.
• Capitalize on regional and national databases on farm production, crop varieties, climate and market data.
Croplands- The System is a GIS enabled software solution designed through intensive research and in-field development with several industry partners. The resulting management system covers the full life-cycle in crop production operations, from planning through marketing. It includes seven user-friendly modules that work together or operate as stand-alone solutions. The Future Direction in Agriculture
When adopting an effective technology plan for your farm operation or agri-business, it is clear that GIS technology is going to have an increasing impact on the agriculture industry. Similarly, precision farming systems will continue to incorporate more GIS functionality and spatial data management capability over time. Individual producers can capitalize on this convergence of technology in their own operation by:
• Volunteering to participate in technology demonstration programs established by software development companies, agri-business or government.
• Acquiring potential sources of agricultural production information being developed by the agriculture industry or government in their area.
• Establishing a plan for capturing field level yield, soil, and moisture data on your own farm by purchasing precision farming technology or by hiring custom service providers equipped with these tools.
Agri-business can take advantage of the changes being implemented by growers by taking the following steps:
• Understand that any technology solution needs to solve business problems and that precision farming and variable rate application technologies represent new tools for accomplishing these goals.
• Place demands on technology suppliers, stressing the importance for their development plans to include and emphasize the integration of new technologies.
• Critically evaluate traditional agriculture business solutions with an eye on their fit with variable rate application tools and concepts. About the author:
Ian Shaw is director business of development/agricultural services for Linnet Geomatics. He has extensive experience as an advisor on environmental management, land use planning and technology implementation. Back |
