DISC citrus planning and scheduling program

Abstract

A program to assist production managers in planning and scheduling citrus operations has been developed as part of the DISC project (Decision Information Systems for Citrus) at the University of Florida. The program integrates a phenology-based planning system with citrus production record keeping. The interface incorporates time-lines and a geographic information system (GIS) for temporal and spatial analysis. The program covers 12 production areas including pesticide applications, fertilizers, herbicides, irrigation, tree removal/reset, mowing, hedging and topping, cold protection, drainage maintenance, equipment maintenance, and young tree care. Production managers can schedule future operations (budget), determine weekly and daily operations (recommendations/ worksheets) and record actual operations for historic analysis. The phenology model predicts bloom dates and other events around which production operations can be scheduled for optimal timing. The planning and scheduling program acts as a framework for additional decision support systems including fungicide spray residue estimation, irrigation scheduling, fertilizer best management practices (BMPs), and rootstock/cultivar selection. A grove observation program that runs on a hand-held computer (personal digital assistant or PDA) also integrates with the planning and scheduling module to facilitate record keeping of pest outbreaks. The program interfaces with accounting software to facilitate communications between the production and business aspects of grove management. Finally, we present new approaches and directions to software engineering used in the project.