Articles
A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR FRUIT GROWING ON FARM LEVEL – ASSESMENT OF ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF MANAGEMENT DECISIONS.
In the year 2000, fruit growers need to reduce the input of chemicals by 44%. This reduction can be achieved by different ways.
A decision support system has been developed to calculate the economic consequences for a fruit farm as well as the effects on the environment when different strategies are chosen.
The model is meant for apple and pear orchards.
Because these plantings are of perennial nature, the model is able to make calculations over periods up to 30 years for the fruit farm as a whole.
Another possibility included in the model, is a gross margin calculation for a specific planting for one year, if three different methods of crop protection are used (standard and two ways of integrated production, whereby pesticide use was stepwise reduced). As for the environment, the model calculates: use of active ingredients in kilos, spraying index (quantity used divided by the quantity advised by the Extension Service) and results according to an "Environmental Yardstick for Pesticides" that has been developed by the Centre for Agriculture and Environment (Utrecht, the Netherlands), for water life, soil life, ground water in spring and in autumn.
Initial calculations show that the model is a good instrument to translate effects of various crop-protection systems into economic and ecologic terms.