A simple DSS for potato crop scheduling in Nilgiri hills of Western Ghats

Abstract

A decision support tool has been developed for providing information on the optimum time of planting and the likely consequences of early or late planting of potato in about 173 locations of Nilgiris region of Tamil Nadu state in India. This DSS was developed for the most popular variety of the region i.e., Kufri Jyoti, and the choice to select right time of harvest is also incorporated in this DSS by simulating the yields at 100 and 120 days. The tool consists of a database of simulated yield at 100 and 120 days after planting derived through InfoCrop-potato model. This DSS is developed with the database generated using the daily weather data developed through weather generators and the potential yields estimated with the help of InfoCrop-Potato model. These data were generated by running the model under rainfed conditions for five dates of planting using the weather data for each location generated through weather generators. A user interface was developed in Visual Basic to access this database. The DSS developed for the purpose of potato crop scheduling is of great significance, which enables the farmers as well as extension functionaries for taking right decisions on timing the planting and harvesting of potato crop on which the major fraction of Nilgiri's economy depends. The simulated results when compared with the actual data and a good degree of correlation was observed between two.