Expert system for irrigated crop management

Planning and management of irrigated cropping systems are of paramount importance to effectively utilize the resources namely water, land, labour, and other inputs. Irrigation systems, in nature, are different from place to place and from time to time. Irrigation environment becomes more complex as it undergoes rapid changes due to natural and man-made actions. Changes in climate, field and soil, farmer and other conditions make the environment more ill-structured and it would be difficult for a farm manager to make decisions in the above circumstances. Decision-making would better be done, based on his own experience and getting expertise from others regarding the dynamic nature of irrigation environment. Hence expert systems have a great potential for providing decision support to irrigation systems managers and farmers. In this paper, an expert system that has been developed for crop planning and managing irrigated cropping system is discussed. The expert system development consists of two phases. In the first phase, given the field, climate and farmer related conditions, suitable crop(s) would be selected. In the second phase, management decisions regarding irrigation and fertilizer schedules are recommended. Twenty crops which require decision support for crop planning are included in the rule-base. This rule-base is put into the knowledge base of INSIGHT 2+ shell and used for decision making.