
Computer to Help Overcome Yield Constraints
in the TropicsBy Jim De
Quattro June 11, 1999How could computers help African
farmers who still use oxen to plow their fields? A scientist with the
Agricultural Research Service is
part of an international team working on an answer. ARS is
USDA's chief research agency. The scientists are developing and testing software that extension workers in
the tropics would use to advise farmers. In the tropics, soil acidity,
phosphorus deficiency and climate often limit crop yields. But with the right
computerized "decision support system," a farm advisor could offer
farmers alternatives consistent with their available tools and methods. The software plan is part of a multi-institutional 5-year program of the
U.S. Agency for International
Development to evaluate soil management and productivity in many countries.
Intensive test sites include the Cinzana region of Mali in west Africa, along
with sites in Costa Rica and the Philippines. Plant physiologist Dan Israel at ARS'
Soybean and
Nitrogen Fixation Unit in Raleigh, N.C., visited the Cinzana last year for
a first-hand look at farming methods. There, oxen till the soil and manure is
the main fertilizer source for millet, sorghum, cowpeas, peanuts, cassava and
sesbania. In the U.S., Israel's research focuses on how soybean root nodules convert
nitrogen from the air to a form plants can use. Cowpeas, Cinzana's main protein
source, also fix nitrogen in this way. But phosphorus deficiency and soil
acidity limit the nodules' efficiency at fixing nitrogen. The new software draws on years of US-AID funded research at
North Carolina State University,
Texas A&M,
Cornell University and the
University of Hawaii. The software has
three components for making decisions on needs for lime, nitrogen or
phosphorus. NCSU sociologist Frank Smith will evaluate the software's impact by
surveying Tropical extension agents and farmers. An article about the project appears in the June issue of ARS' Agricultural Research magazine
and on the web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jun99/west0699.htm Scientific contact: Daniel W. Israel, ARS Soybean and Nitrogen
Fixation Research Unit, Raleigh, N.C., phone (919) 513-3031, fax (919)
515-2167, [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |