Wheat Genetics, Physiology and Disease Research Unit
Dept of Plant Pathology
Washington State University
Pullman
WA 99164-6430
Windows expert system for managing rusts and other diseases of wheat in the Pacific North West of the USA, where at least 16 disease groups are found. The program can be sued to predict occurence of disease based on cultivar characteristics, prevailng weather conditions, geographical zones, agronomic zones, and crop managerial practices. The program can compile past conditions to reconstruct previous disease conditions, assist the user in disease control options, and provides disease-related information for research and teaching purposes.
Author of the abstract:
Centre for Computer-based Learning in Land Use and Environmental Sciences (CLUES) MoreCrop predicts diseases based on cutivar characteristics, prevailing weather, geographical regions, agronomic zones, crop managerial practices, and field history. The classical disease triangle is used as teh overriding principle in predicting diseases. Thus, a susceptible host, a virulent pathogen, and a favorable environment must exist for the disease to develop and cause damage to the crop. The inference mechanism of MoreCrop supports forward and backward chaining. Forward chaining tells what diseases are likely to occur. Backward chaining provides the rationale for the disease outcome. MoreCrop predicts diseases that will occur in a selected managerial scenerio; reconstructs past managerial decistions to replicate prvious disease conditions; assists the user in reasoning what disease control option to select; provides specific disease control suggestions; simulates crop managerial scenerios; provides disease-related and cultivar-related information for research, education and extension; and serves as a training and reference tool to solve problems. MoreCrop can be adapted for use in other regions of the world and can serve as a prototype in developing a total wheat managerial program.
Source: MoreCrop