Tropical crop selection advisory (TROPSEL) : a simple expert system for agricultural land suitability evaluation
1997
A. R. Sahibin | W. A. Adam
A common practice in assessing land potential is to use a land capability or suitability evaluation. The FAO Framework of Land Evaluation is often used. This rates land according to suitability level, nature of limitation and management requirements. It is complex technically and requires experts in the field to understand and to use it. This paper presents a simple computer program which processes data to identify suitable land uses without the need for technical expertise.An expert system called TROPSEL was developed from Crystal Shell. In essence the program incorporates a knowledge base comprising the site and soil requirements of 28 tropical agricultural and forest crops. The knowledge base was obtained from gathered field data and published materials. Twenty land characteristics have been incorporated in the data base. Crops suitable for agriculture are selected by matching crop requirement to known land characteristics.TROPSEL provides a rapid and easy method to make an initial selection of suitable crops for a given land area. It also allows the user to assess the effect of ameliorating readily altered soil properties on the range of suitable crops. The program can be expanded by adding other crops whose requirements are known to the knowledge base.No crop profitability or economic criteria have been included in the program and it is envisaged that such factors would be considered at a later stage on land use planning. An attempt was made to validate the program by relating crops in current production to land use characteristics in relevant areas. This did not prove totally successful because either economic considerations or demand for staple food can have an overriding effect on crop choice.
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