AgInformatics

Abstract

The term stems from the blending of the two words agriculture and informatics and refers to the application of informatics to the analysis, design and development of agricultural activities. It overarches expressions such as Precision Agriculture (PA), Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), and Agricultural landscape analysis and planning. The adoption of AgInformatics can accelerate agricultural development by providing farmers and decision makers with more accessible, complete, timely, and accurate information. However, it is still hindered by a number of important yet unresolved issues including big data handling, multiple data sources and limited standardization, data protection, and lack of optimization models. Development of knowledge-based systems in the farming sector would require key components, supported by Internet of things (IoT), data acquisition systems, ubiquitous computing and networking, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, effective management of geospatial and temporal data, and ICT-supported cooperation among stakeholders.