Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), 15 January 2018
EFITA newsletter / 810 - European Federation for Information Technology
in Agriculture, Food and the Environment
To correspond with me (GW), please use this address: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net
To subscribe the efita newsletter (please ask your friends and colleagues
to test this link)
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Weekly newsletters about ICT in Agriculture in English and French
Both newsletters have around 14000 subscribers.
>>> Last weekly EFITA Newsletters in English (created in 1999)
See: http://www.informatique-agricole.org/efita-newsletters/
>>> Last weekly AFIA Newsletters in French (created 20 years
ago in 1997)
Voir : http://www.informatique-agricole.org/les-gazettes/
Around 15% of subscribers have a look on these newsletters. A rather normal
rate…
The archive for the last years are available on the AFIA web site.
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Séminaires |
>>>
Journée Internet des Objets (IoT) en agriculture – le
28 avril 2017 à Boigneville |
gaiasense, the Greek Smart Farming System – Agrotica 2018
1 - 4 February 2018 - THESSALONIKI, Greece
gaiasense will be presented to agricultural advisors who need modern tools in their work so that they can properly advise producers, as well as scientists–researchers who wish to see their research outcomes taking flesh and blood and be applied in real production, and also producers’ groups interested in substantially reducing their production costs and improving the quality characteristics of their products.
See: http://www.gaiasense.gr/en/agrotica-2018
EurAgEng conference organized by Dutch Society of Agricultural Engineers (NVTL) and various research groups of Wageningen UR
8-12 July 2018 - WAGENINGEN
> Keynote speakers
Prof. Dr. Ir. Louise Fresco (to be confirmed), chair of the board of Wageningen University & Research
Prof. Dr. Joachim Hertzberg, Institute of Computer Science, Osnabrück University, Germany
> Overarching theme: New engineering concepts for a valued agriculture
1: Design methods for integrated and sustainable farming systems (FS)
2: New farming management systems (FM)
3: Co-production and implementation of technology in food production systems (FP)
4: Robotics and sensor technology (RM)
5: Energy and greenhouse gas emissions (EG)
6: Soil, land and water engineering (SW)
7: Animal production technologies (AP)
8: Plant production technologies (PP)
9: Greenhouse production technologies (GP)
10: Post-harvest technologies (PH)
11: Nutrient management and waste treatment (NM)
Call for abstracts’ deadline: March 5, 2018
See: http://www.ageng2018.com
Research Frontiers in Precision Agriculture, theme of the next AFITA/WCCA2018 Conference
25 – 27 October 2018 - MUMBAI
AFITA is holding this International Conference, in conjunction with INFITA's and the World Congress on Computers in Agriculture (WCCA)
See: http://www.afita2018.org/AFITA/afita_wcca2018/
See: http://www.infita.org
Contact: J. ADINARAYANA, Professor & Head Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering, IIT Bombay, Powai, MUM BAI - 400 076, India
See: http://www.csre.iitb.ac.in/adi/
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SatFarming Consulting
Real-time forecast crop growth and Development – Monitoring & Optimization Software
> Unparalleled Calculation Performance
SatFarming calculation engine uses our proprietary algorithms to show you accurate, and real-time feedback from the field in seconds.
> Gain Insight Previously Unattainable
SatFarming’s tool optimizes collected data from satellite imagery, weather, crop and soil sensors to show precise stages your crop development.
> Expertise By Your Side
Our report brings valuable insights, helping farmers and agricultural enterprises in their decision making, planning and forecasting.
> Minimize Uncertainty, Increase Profit
A deeper understanding of growth stages, biomass, nitrogen index, water balance and yield will help you to build a more robust strategy to gain time, save money and increase profit.
Voir : http://www.satfarming.com
Contact: Xavier BAILLEAU
E-mail : xbailleau(a)wanadoo.fr
Farmer-to-farmer learning network grows to include 46 farms
See: https://www.farminguk.com/news/Farmer-to-farmer-learning-network-grows-to-include-46-farms_48256.html
Training in Data Management, Graphics and Statistical Analysis using SPSS Course
See: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/training-data-management-graphics-statistical-analysis-david-onkware-6353329128338386944/
Autonomous Farm Equipment Market is Estimated to Surpass USD 440 billion by 2024
See: https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/716658/
Driverless tractors: Robotic harvesting technology passes on-farm testing
See: http://www.americanagriculturist.com/equipment/driverless-tractors
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The
Efita newsletter is sponsored by:
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What’s Needed in African Agriculture Before Technology
“A lot of what’s needed in African agriculture is quite low-tech if tech at all,” says Gary Vaughan-Smith, chief investment officer at SilverStreet Capital, the agribusiness private equity firm.
See: https://agfundernews.com/whats-needed-african-agriculture-technology.html
10 Conspiracy Theories About RoundUp in a Single Documentary (comment elaborated by Øystein Heggdal, a Norwegian agronomist)
See: http://fafdl.org/blog/2017/12/04/conspiracy-theories-about-glyphosate/
Agriculture sector to boost demand of Agrochemical Market till forecast period 2025
Agrochemicals is the generic name of chemical products used in the agricultural field. These include pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, nematicides, synthetic fertilizers, bio fertilizer, and chemical growth agents, among others. Increasing population and surging urbanization in turn puts additional pressure on the already diminishing farmlands. Agrochemicals help to effectively cultivate and manage crops to increase production. Thus, these factors greatly support growth of the global agrochemicals market. Various government and non-governmental organizations are focusing on addressing this global concern by increasing funding for programs related to the agricultural sector. The World Bank implemented 146 projects during 2014–2016, which provide agricultural services and assets to 17 million farmers, in turn augmenting growth of the market
See: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/254
See: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/agrochemicals-market-254
Ipsos MORI: The Perils of Perception 2017(it should true for 2018 too!)
See: https://perils.ipsos.com/
Why 2017 May Be the Best Year Ever (it should true for 2018 too!)
See: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/opinion/sunday/why-2017-may-be-the-best-year-ever.html
New research and farmers’ intuition: getting to grips with decision excellence
The first detailed analysis of farmers’ intuitive decision making has been released. Dr Nuthall, of Lincoln University, noted a leading international rural research journal has published the analysis (‘Intuition, the farmers’ primary decision method. A review and analysis’, Journal of Rural Studies). The work is co-authored with Dr Old. Despite computer developments, intuition will be the main decision system.
Surveys make it clear farmers make by far the majority of decisions using their intuition. Sometimes the decision is instantaneous, but in others a range of thought levels and computer analyses are brought to bear before acting. Good decision intuition is not a mysterious process.
The intuition process often uses what is called ‘pattern matching’. This is where the brain uses experience to match up past events with the current decision problem. The farmer’s intuition then comes up with what the brain believes to be the correct action.
Intuition develops with a farmer’s thought process, self-criticism and review. The research collected farmer (over 700) and farm data and used this to show the systems associated with successful intuition.
Like any skill, improvement is certainly possible using proven techniques. To help this extension process, it was reasoned that a story of a tight knit group of farmers working on improving their intuition would help.
This novel tells the story of a group of the farmers and their meetings covering a range of management challenges and skills associated with intuition. Guided by meeting facilitators, the farmers sort out each other’s decision problems, learning and taking on board the lessons. The book, ‘The intuitive farmer … inspiring management success’, is available by mail through most international book retailers including 5M.
For good intuition the farmers’ technical farming knowledge is important as a forerunner. But equally is the attention to carefully observing the state of the farm and the relevant markets. And the farmer must be good at anticipating the path ahead … looking ahead skills are critical in assessing alternative actions to solve any decision problem. These all tend to be inbuilt skills
Review and self-criticism are part of improving these skills. A farmer should analyse all past decisions and take on board any lessons on offer. Discussing past actions with colleagues and family helps improve mind held patterns and good solutions.
The analysis also made it clear a knowledge of correct decision approaches was important. This was an area the farmers in general were not that good at. This is where the novel on intuition can help enormously. Decision rules relying, for example, on an understanding of diminishing returns such as ensuring marginal returns equals marginal costs must come to a farmer intuitively to allow success. Many others are also important.
Also important is the farmer’s own personal attributes, and their objectives too. Like anyone, farmers express their managerial skill through their personality and natural intelligence giving rise to their ‘managerial style’.
A good level of conscientiousness, and low anxiety, for example, are associated with high managerial ability. There is good evidence to show it is possible for a farmer to modify her or his personality to better align with features associated with high ability.
The relative importance of each intuition developing skill on a percentage basis was calculated from the results using a range of analysis methods. Decision theory knowledge contributes from 11 to 23%, anticipation skills 5 to 8%, observation 2 to 21%, technical knowledge a whopping 14 to 55% and reflection and critique effort 10 to 23%. The remaining contributors give 26 to 2% (feedback, experience in its own right….). It is clear each area is important and should be given improvement attention.
One researcher recommends farmers diary the decisions made and list out the factors they thought important. When they see the outcomes from the decision they relate this back to the actions taken. Were they correct? How could they improve the outcome? This analysis slowly sharpens up the farmer’s intuition. Computers can help enormously in this process.
See for example: https://www.amazon.com/Intuitive-Farmer-Inspiring-Management-Success/dp/191045513X
Contact: Peter NUTHALL, Honorary Associate Professor, Dept of Land Management and Systems, Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand
E-mail: peter.nuthall(a)lincoln.ac.nz
Refined assessment and perspectives on the cumulative risk resulting from the dietary exposure to pesticide residues in the Danish population
By Martin Olof Larsson, Vibe Sloth Nielsen, Niels Bjerre, Frank Laporte, Nina Cedergreenc
Relatively few studies are available on realistic cumulative risk assessments for dietary pesticide exposure. Despite available studies showing low risk, public concern remains. A method to estimate realistic residue levels based on information from spraying journals and supervised residue trials was described in a previous publication.
The present article proposes a new method to estimate average residue levels in imported foods based on residue monitoring data and knowledge about agronomic practices. The two methods were used in combination to estimate average pesticide residue levels in 47 commodities on the Danish market. The chronic consumer exposure was estimated in six Danish diets. The Hazard Index (HI) method was used to assess consumer risk. Despite the conservative (cautious) risk assessment approach, low HI values where obtained. The HI was 16% for adults and 44% for children, combining the risk of all pesticides in the diet.
Conclusion: the present study adds support to the evidence showing that adverse health effects of chronic pesticide residue exposure in the Danish population are very unlikely. The HI for pesticides for a Danish adult was on level with that of alcohol for a person consuming the equivalent of 1 glass of wine every seventh year.
See: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691517306877
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Next
Efita
Congress in Greece in 2019! |
EFITA
President: Michael Clasen |
20 ways to break Europe from Atlas of Prejudice by Yankp Tsvetkov
See: https://atlasofprejudice.com/tearing-europe-apart-10d01e876eab
The Aussie bar
There were 3 Aussies and one New-Zealander in a bar.
The Aussies decide that it would be funny to piss the New-Zealander off.
"Ok, ok." Said the first one, "I know how to do it."
He goes up to the NZer and says "Your Johana Lomu 's a gay prick."
The guy just shrugs and says "Ok."
The next Aussie goes up to him and says "your Johana Lomu 's a transsexual." again the Kiwi doesn’t seem to mind.
The last guy goes up to him and says "Your Johana Lomu 's an Australian."
The kiwi smiles. "I know, that’s what your other friends have been trying to tell me."
The distribution of this efita newsletter is sponsored by vitisphere.com
Please, contribute to the content of your efita newsletter, and advertise your events, new publications, new products and new project in this newsletter. Without your support, it will not survive!
Contact: Guy WAKSMAN
E-mail: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net
To read this newsletter on our web site
See: http://www.informatique-agricole.org/gazette/efita/efita_180115_810.htm
The archives of this newsletter
See: http://www.informatique-agricole.org/category/gazette-efita/
Jokes, Quotes and Anecdotes... an Anatomy of Wit
Mick Harkin, ex Secretary of EFITA, who has kept us amused with his
Friday Jokes over the years, has published a book on Amazon entitled "Jokes,
Quotes and Anecdotes... an Anatomy of Wit".
See: http://www.jokesquotesandanecdotes.com
Contact: Mick HARKIN
E-mail: mickjharkin(a)gmail.com
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