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Full Project – Design and implementation of an online farm management information system

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Accurate and easy to use Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) are of fundamental importance for a successful operational farm management. Unfortunately, most farmers do not use FMISs when it comes to operate their business, despite the increasing professionalism in the agricultural sector and its increasing usage of IT technologies.

The skillful and conceived management is one of the most important success factors for today’s farms (Mishra et al., 1999; Muhammad et al., 2004). Only when a farm is well managed, it can generate the funds to finance its sustainable development and thereby its survival in today’s fast changing environment. However, a sophisticated management is a challenging and time-consuming task, and has to be organized as efficiently as possible (Doye et al., 2000). Reasons that explain the importance of a sophisticated farm management are certainly diverse, however, three major factors have been identified in the ongoing academic discourse.

The introduction of modern technologies to the agricultural sector (Glauben et al., 2006).
The environment the farms are involved in has become more and more complex over the past decades. Until the late 1980s it was enough to supply a society with cheap and sufficient food products. Today however, much more is expected from the agricultural sector, in particular when it comes to environmental concerns. Overall the agricultural business has shifted from a simple production sector to a multifunctional service sector. The expectations incorporate compliance with regulations to be entitled for EU subsidies, new and Lastly, the introduction of modern technology contributed to the challenge of sophisticated farm management. In this context modern technology incorporates in particular the usage of PCs coupled with the application of the corresponding software of the financial statements of farms, planning tasks for land cultivation husbandry etc. Additionally, many farmer introduced GPS added tractors and “smart” machinery, GIS-supported landscape modeling and other state of the art technology, making special knowledge indispensable . All these technologies can be combined under the expression “Wired Farm” or “Precision Farming” (Sigrimis et al., 1999). A major outcome of the three developments described is the generation of large data volumes. To handle and to benefit from theses enormous data volumes farmers have to be capable of performing the following tasks:

Collection of Data;
Processing of Data;
Providing Data;
Using Data.
To deal with these four tasks farmers have to introduce an integrated Information System (IS) – sometimes also called DSS (decision support systems). Integrated in this context means that the IS has to be the connecting part between the farm’s ERP (enterprise resource planning system) and the FMIS (management information system), . Only when an IS fulfils, both the data handling and the integration requirements it can satisfy its overall goal, namely to make the available data usable (McCown, 2002; Bryant, 1999; Khulman, Brodersen, 2001), to contribute to a better decision-making process, and finally to a better management of the farm. At the end farm management is always about analyzing data and making choices in order to allocate the scarce resources of the farm in the best way (Malcom, 2004, Parker, 2003).

Accurate and easy to use Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) are of fundamental importance for a successful operational farm management. However, still today many farmers do not use FMISs for various reasons, like lack of knowledge and the complexity of many available FMISs. Productivity gains in the agricultural industries have historically been driven by the adoption of new technical products and processes. It has been the realm of extension to make sure that farmers hear about these processes and technologies, and usually it has been State governments who have funded the extension effort. With the rapid increase in the complexity of the technology of farming, there is now a recognized need to improve the skills and education of our farmers – the human capital of agriculture. The Internet is changing the way society accesses and processes information. Farmers now have access to a wide range of information about many aspects of their farming systems, but it is often thought by scientists and extension specialists that many lack the skills necessary to use that information to improve their farm profitability and sustainability through technical innovation. We live in what is being called the “information age”, an era in which it is the knowledge and skills of the workforce that will determine our fate in a globally competitive marketplace. Knowledge and skills go hand-in-hand with informed management, and it is in better management that increased productivity will be found.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

It is very unfortunate that the technology potentials have not been fully or even adequately utilized in the field of farm information management. Very little farm managers has grabbed this powerful opportunities. This has put managers and researchers in the field of farm management far behind.

The following are the problems identified in the management of farm information:

Manual method of documenting farm information concerning different plants and animals.
It is difficult to retrieve farming information of plants and animals.
Lack of database applications for farm information management.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aim of the project is to develop an information system for farm management with the following objectives:

To develop a system that will keep track of farm inventories and products.

To develop a system that gives room for efficient recording of day to day sales for accountability and easy retrieval of records.
To develop a system that improves farm management activities.
To develop a system that is users friendly as regards farm management.

1.4 SIGNIFICANT OF STUDY

The significance of the study is that it will provide the case study with an automated system that can be used to store and retrieve farming information for different plants. It will help the users to implement their farming practices effectively by making use of the database of farming information provided by the system. The study will also serve as a useful academic material for other scholars that need information on the subject.

1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study covers Design and Implementation of an information system for Farm management using Onibuoje Farm as a case study. It is limited to the registration of farming information for easy retrieval when needed. This project covers the farm management and information for Farm firms, the software development will cover the record keeping of sales, keeping track and managing of inventories and farm product of Oniboje Farm, Esa-Oke.

1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Record Keeping: is the systematic procedure by which the records of an organization are created, captured, maintained, and disposed of.

Sales: the exchange of a commodity for money; the action of selling something.

Inventory: a complete list terms such as property, goods in stock, or the contents of a building.

Management: the organization and coordination of the activities of a business in order to achieve defined objectives.

Computer: A machine used in modern times in organization and homes do manipulate data.

Data: Is a row fact that has no meaning.

Database: A collection of interrelated data stared with controlled redundancy to serve one or more application.

Information: Information is a data that has been evaluated. It is a processed data.

Information Overload: A situation which the sheer amount of information in a system is simply too great to be coped with by the information management available. It is overflow of information which slows down decision performance.

Information system: A systematic way of organizing the handling of information, from information gathering to information retrieval and use.

Management: The process of procuring, allocating, combing and utilizing or organizational resources expressed usually as 3ms (men, materials and money) through planning organizing directing and controlling activities of work of the organization member to reach certain stated objectives.

Management Information System: Mis is an integrated and holistic reporting network system in an organization that provides planning and controlling information for effective decision making.

Software: The programs that control the computer operation the system programme controls the hardware component of computer which application program controls task performed by computer.

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