Transcript PRECISION FARMING IN MEXICO By Cesar Galaviz Soil 4213 INTRODUCTION • GIS became important in Mexican agriculture because of need to inform to decision makers.

PRECISION FARMING IN MEXICO
By
Cesar Galaviz
Soil 4213
INTRODUCTION
• GIS became important in Mexican agriculture because of
need to inform to decision makers of the agricultural sector
about the predicting volumes of the crop production.
• INIFAP and CIMMYT are the two most important organizations
that are actually putting in practice GIS in Mexican agriculture
with productive results to the sector.
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL,
FORESTRY AND LIVESTOCK
INVESTIGATIONS
MISION
Generate scientific knowledge and innovative technologies
and promote them, considering a focus of productive chains which must
integrate the primary producer and the final consumer for the
development of the agricultural sector in Mexico.
GENERAL STRUCTURE
6 National investigation centers
81 Experimental fields
NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE PREDICTION
OF CROPS
The program develops activities for monitoring
crops and agro climatic information at national scale.
It also determines the health condition of the crops
through satellite images with the goal of creating
simulation models of vegetative growth that
estimate the crop yield.
This information allows to anticipate the deficits and excesses in the
production of basic grains with the purpose of fortify the decisionmaking of Mexican agriculture
GENERAL INFORMATION
• Dr. Mario Tiscareno Lopez, national leader of the program.
• 25 researchers participate gathering information from the the
different experimental fields of the INIFAP (crop-monitoring and
agro climatic data).
• Corn, sorghum, wheat, and barley for temporal and irrigated land.
• Phenomenon “El Nino” permitted important climatic information and
the impact to the crops at his appearance in 1997-98. This information
was provided in collaboration with Texas A&M, and Florida State
University by the financial support of INIFAP, NOAA and NASA.
What is CIMMYT?
• Conduct research on maize and wheat to help people overcome
hunger and to grow crops without harming the environment.
• Works with research partners worldwide.
• Work concentrated in developing countries.
• Headquarters in Mexico with 17 regional offices.
• Non-profit organization.
GOAL
• Improve the lives of the world’s poor by developing maize and wheat
seed that yields well and resists diseases, insects and other stresses
that harm maize and wheat in developing countries.
What does CIMMYT Do?
• Hold maize and wheat genetic resources (seed from all over the world)
• Develop techniques to protect the natural resources.
• Generate and distribute new knowledge about maize and wheat.
• Develop more effective methods for conducting research on maize
and wheat.
• Offer many kinds of training to researchers from developing countries.
• Offer consulting on technical issues, to share knowledge on the latest
research problems and solutions.
COUNTRY ALMANACS:
Moving GIS into the Mainstream of Agriculture and Natural
Resource Management
• GIS offers powerful tools for management and
analyzing spatial information to assist in agricultural development and natural resource management.
• Almanacs provide readily and accessible tools and
data for characterizing and analyzing geographic
variation in relation to agricultural concerns.
• Provides tools for users who are not GIS specialists
researches, policy makers, and administrators have
immediate access to GIS information.
What Almanacs Do?
• Provides data on climate, topography, land use, human population
density, and other features on CD–ROM.
• The “site similarity” tools provides a powerful mechanism for
identifying regions with characteristics similar to a specific site.
• The software shell has additional non-GIS tools such a digital document library as well as on-line help for any questions.
• Almanacs are available for many countries and more will be available
soon. Almanacs for the developing countries are distributed at no
charge.
Who Uses the Almanacs?
• From a broad range of disciplines and management areas in
national and international research centers, universities and private
companies.
• Breeders, agronomists, livestock specialists, and research managers.
Some Examples of Almanac Applications:
• Examining and reproducing results of a major GIS-crop simulation
exercise that assessed the potential of conservation tillage in jalisco,
Mexico.
• Training researchers in the potential uses of GIS.
CONCLUSION
• Mexican agriculture with the rest of the developing countries
need to interact with the new technology that most advanced
countries had created and take advantage of it.
• Organizations like INIFAP and CIMMYT play an important role
in the creation of new accessible technology for the development
of an advanced agriculture for developing countries. In this way
farmers will receive more benefits because they will be able to put
in the market quality products like developed countries do.
For More Information Visit:
www.inifap.conacyt.mx
www.cimmyt.org