1. Development of Expert System on Wheat Crop Management (EXOWHEM)

2. Project Profile Summary
The Project is an effort to solve the problems faced by a farmer where the services of the expert is not available
It will advise farmers on variety selection, field preparation, fertilizer application, schedule of irrigation
It will be able to provide solution to the problems faced by the farmers through online queries
It will also help in identifying insect/pest attack and suggest suitable remedies
The Expert system will extend large amount of research work done by the ICAR institutes, Directorate of wheat research and SAUs to the Farmers and Researchers

3. Objectives Immediate Objective
To collect and compile the information from the experts for Wheat Crop Management
To develop the knowledge base for the Expert System
To develop inference engine for the expert system
To develop and implement expert system on Wheat Crop Management
Long term objectives:
  To enhance the efficiency of production system for wheat crop by the extension of available crop / farm management technology to the farmers through the Expert system

4. Methodology
Literature and research papers related to wheat crop management will be collected
Modules related to wheat crop management will be identified and allocated to the associates
Information from the experts of wheat from various disciplines for the soil type, weather conditions water and fertilizer requirement essential for the growth of healthy crop will be collected
The information collected from the farmers and experts will be catalogued
Database will be designed using SQL server
Questionnaire will be developed on the basis of this information with the help of wheat experts
Input forms will be developed for asking the questions to the farmers that would be in a specific order according to the questionnaire

5. Methodology
Expert System shell will be developed using appropriate scripting language to integrate fact and rules with the system
Suitable GUI’s will be developed for the user’s interaction with the system
Inference engine will be developed using expert system shell. The inference engine will search for the most appropriate remedy on the basis of input data
All possible media that can be used to enhance the explanation capabilities of the system would be included such as images, movie clips and sound tracks
The developed system will be demonstrated in a workshop and suggestions for improvement will be taken
Suggestions will be incorporated and the System will be published on Intranet

6. Objective wise activity
Activities for Objective 1
Review of Literature
Identification and allocation of Modules in requirement analysis workshop
Consultation with Experts and farmers to acquire Knowledge
Cataloguing of information collected from farmers and wheat experts
Activities for Objective 2
Designing of Databases for facts and rules
Extensive interview with the farmers and experts for developing question bank
Formulation of rules and integrating it with the system using suitable scripting language
Data Entry

7. Objective wise activity
Activities for Objective 3
Development of Expert System Shell
Development of GUI for user’s interaction with the system
Development of Inference engine using Expert System Shell
Activities for Objective 4
Testing the developed system
Organization of workshop for demonstration
Incorporation of Suggestion
Implementation of the System on the Intranet
Report Writing

8. Architecture It will be divided in three distributed tiers
Data Access Tier (at Database server)
Logic and Inference building tier (Web Server)
Presentation Tier (Browser at the user’s end)

9. Function It will helps in extending Research to Farmer’s and End users
It will help farmers in remote places to solve their problem where the services of experts are not available
It will minimizes the load from experts
It will be an effective means of extension
It will be helpful for scientists, students, domain experts and policy makers

10. Participating Scientists
Principal Investigator : Shahnawazul Islam
Co-Principal Investigator : Harnam Singh Sikarwar
Associated Scientists: Mohd. Samir Farooqi
Vipin Dubey
K.K. Chaturvedi
H.O. Aggarwal
Associated Scientists from DWR :   Dr. Randhir Singh
Dr. R. K. Sharma
Dr. A. K. Sharma
Associated Scientists from IARI : Dr. J.P. Sharma
Dr. K.D.Srivastava
Dr. Kirti Sharma
Two Technical Assistants from the field of Computer Science and Agriculture
Duration of the Project : 3 Years
Expenditure Involved is : 1.90 lakhs