KisanHub - AnitaTaral/git101 GitHub Wiki

##KisanHub

KisanHub is decision support tool which is integrated data analytics and monitoring for farmers and growers. KisanHub is easy to use and indispensible to profitable precision farming.

###Key points about KisanHub:-

Optimise inputs, boost returns and improve farm business efficiency
Manage more efficient irrigation
Identify savings and monitor productivity
Monitors sensor data and integrates spreadsheets
All the latest sector news, commodity and market data
Integrate planning, planting, pest and disease control for market-leading transparency, traceability, provenance
Open to agricultural researchers and academics to make their research more widely known and easily shareable through the farming community

###Vision:- Our vision is to make KisanHub as an operating system of the farm and aggregate every single key piece of data to help farmers take better agronomic and/or business decisions.

"The philosophy behind KisanHub is simple –do something meaningful and useful for the farming community to help it operate efficiently."

####KisanHub has six applications

Field and Crop Recording

This application helps a farmer to keep records of farming operations and summaries expenses required for them.

Weather

Weather application provides hourly field-level updates & five-day forecasts on rainfall, temperature, humidity,wind speed, cloud cover and dew point. Users can export weather data in csv or pdf format.

Water Management

Water management application consist of soil water balance model (SWBM). It provides information about daily irrigation requirement for field.

Markets

Markets application provides information about future prices, demand and supply of commodity. It also provides the monthly report of World Agricultural Demand and Supply Estimates (WASDE).

Trends

Trends provides latest news about agricultural commodities, weather and agronomy. It also provides twitters posts related to agriculture.

Account Settings

This application helps to users to create his account credentials such as username, password, profile and permissions to other users.

####Partners

##Field and Crop Recording Application

This application helps a farmer to keep records of farming operations and summaries expenses required for them.

Farming Operations

The field and crop recording application has the following features:-

###Keep records about credentials of the farm: Farm

It consist of following features:-

#####Create farm on Google map: Add and Edit

Here the facility is provided to add farm by using the navigation mark on Google map. Once farm is added it gives the location details of the farm i.e. latitude, longitude and elevation.

#####Keep details about a farmer: Profile

Profile helps to keep all the details about a farmer (For example:- farmer name, Twitter id, website, achievements, about produce and logo).

#####Details about farm certification: Assurance

"Farm assurance is nothing but the product certification for agricultural products that emphasis the principles of quality assurance."

For example:- Red Tractor Mark is a UK quality assurance programme for animal products and crops.

Assurance keeps the records of the certification, who certified that, registration number, certification date, renewal date and expiry date. It helps to a farmer to update the farm assurance.

#####Keep records of emergency contact details: Emergency

It helps to keep emergency contact and location details (For example:- Health and safety phone contacts, environment agency or government department phone, farm directions and other locations like water supply).

#####Details about farm staff and warehouses: Settings

It keeps the information of a farm staff, weather station and warehouses used.

###Keep information about field operations: Field

Field has the following features:-

#####Create field boundaries: Add and Edit

Here the facility is provided to draw the field boundaries. It records the area of field and soil type. Here the option is provided to keep the records of the soil analysis results. The soil analysis results consist of root-zone depth, electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity, bulk density and various nutrient content of the soil. Soil analysis results helps for the irrigation and fertilizer application.

#####Details about sowing operation: Crop

It keeps the records of the sowing date, harvest date, crop season, crop variety, row spacing, plant spacing and crop area. These records are important for the irrigation scheduling. It also keeps the records of the cropping pattern. History of cropping pattern helps to a farmer to know that which crop gives better yield in particular season.

#####Details about products recommended during farming operations: Recommendation

It display the records of various operations like drilling, fertilising and pesticide. The records contains operation type, product used, quantity applied and the reason.

#####Details about all farming operations: Operation

It keeps the records of all the operations consisting of sowing, irrigation, fertiliser, pesticide and harvesting. The records includes the start date, start time, end date, end time, product type, quantity used, equipment used, yield, weather information at the time of operation and the who do that operation. It helps to a farmer to organised the various farm activities and estimate the total expenses.

###Store the information about quantity of products stored and warehouses: Inventory

Inventory stores the information about the quantity of products (seed, fertiliser and pesticide) stored and warehouses. It consist of the following features:-

#####Keep information about warehouses where products are stored: Add and Edit store

It keeps the information about warehouses where various products are stored. It keeps store details about fertiliser, seed and pesticide product (Name, Type and Capacity).

#####Keep information about fertiliser product: Fertiliser product

It records the purchase details and size, date of purchase, number of units purchased, weight or volume per unit and price per unit. It also records other details such as supplier and warehouse reference number.

#####Keep information about pesticide product: Pesticide product

#####Keep information about seed: Seed

###Keep details about farm equipments used: Farm Equipment

It keeps all details about a farm equipments used in the field. It consist of following features:-

#####Keep information about farm equipments: Add and Edit

It records the type, registration number, capacity, power required, supplier, date of purchase, number of units purchased, price per unit of farm equipment.

#####Keep information about maintenance of farm equipment: Maintenance

###Summary of farm details, crop rotation and expenses: Reports

It consist of following features:-

#####All details about farm and fields: Farm

It gives the farm name, location, farm area, field name, current crop, field area and soil type.

#####Give information about cropping pattern: Crop Rotation

It gives the history of crops grown in field over a years.

#####Details about fertiliser used: Fertiliser

It gives the season, type of the fertiliser used and the quantity consumed.

#####Information about the investment: Expense

It gives the crop-wise expense required for the planting, fertilizer and pesticide. Expense summary helps to manage financing budget.

Weather Application

The weather application has the following features:-

###Provides forecast and actual weather information: Field Weather The actual and forecast weather information is provided from two different data providers. This helps farmers to plan their day-to-day field activities.

#####Predicted weather information: Forecast The forecast is provided based on data from Norwegian Meterological Institute.

It gives weather information for individual field for next five days.

Actual weather information: Actual

The actual weather data is provided based on data from forecast.io(meterological institute)

It provides actual daily weather information of last one month for individual fields.

It provides the graphical representation of the all weather parameters for last one month.

Weather parameters are temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, sunshine and reference evapotranspiration.

###Provides regional weather information: Regional Climate Regional climate provided based on data from Uk Meterological Office.

It provides monthly and annual summary of weather data.

Annual summary:- It provides the regional climate data for historical years. It may provide data as annual or season-wise(autumn, spring, summer, winter).

Monthly summary:- It provides month-wise information about regional climate.

##Water Management

Water management application consist of soil water balance model (SWBM). It provides information about daily irrigation requirement of field.

###The water management application has following features:-

###Provides information about irrigation requirement: SWBM It provides information about parameters such as soil moisture depletion, effective rainfall, crop coefficient, actual evapotranspiration, reference evapotranspiration, applied irrigation, root depth in terms of plots. Users can export the output of soil water balance model in csv or pdf file.

###Keep records about models to be used: SWBM Options It keep the records about the model which is used for different parameters such as:-

Root growth:-

          a. Sigmoidal model
          b. Linear model

Crop stress:-

          a. Logarithmic model
          b. Linear model

Effective rainfall:-

          a. Fixed percentage
          b. USDA SCS

###Keep information about water source: Water Source It keeps records about type and description of water source used in farm.

Note: Terms related to SWBM

##Markets Application Markets application provides information about future prices, demand and supply of commodity. It also provides the monthly report of World Agricultural Demand and Supply Estimates (WASDE).

####This application has following features:-

Future
Updates
WASDE

Trends application

Trends provides news about agricultural commodities, weather and agronomy. It also provides twitter blogs related to agriculture.

Trends application has following features:-

Twitter
Commodities
Generic

##Account Settings

This application helps to users to create his account credentials such as username,password, profile and permissions to other users.

####This application has following features:-

Account Settings
Dashboard Settings
Personal Profile
Permissions
API

##Farming Operations ###The different farming operations are :-

Tillage
Soil Analysis
Sowing
Irrigation
Fertiliser
Pesticide
Harvesting

####The mechanical manipulation of soil: Tillage

Tillage is mechanical manipulation of soil (For example:- ploughing, digging). It inverts and aerates the soil layer. So it helps for better germination and growth of crops. It is done before drilling or planting of crops.

####The testing of field soil to know soil properties: Soil Analysis

Soil analysis is testing of field soil to know soil properties. Soil analysis results helps to decide which crop gives better yield in field. It also helps for providing fertiliser product and their recommendation. It is done at an interval of six months or a year.

####Sowing of seeds in field: Sowing

Sowing is generally done by two methods.

Drilling
Planting

Drilling is the placing of seeds in soil and covering them again by soil.

When planting:-

The seeds are germinated first in nursery.
Seedlings are then transplant into the field.

Fertilisers may be applied at the time of sowing.

Sometimes water may be applied before sowing for the better germination of seeds.

####Artificial application of water to crop: Irrigation

Irrigation is the artificial process of applying water to crop which enhances crop growth and increases yield. Water is applied at an intervals according to crop water requirement and weather conditions.

####Process of applying chemicals to increase soil fertility: Fertiliser

Fertiliser application is process of applying chemicals to increase soil fertility. It provides nutrients to crop. It enhances the growth of crop and increases crop yield.

####Applied to protect crops from diseases: Pesticide

Pesticides are applied in the form of powder or spray to protect a plant from diseases.

####The process of collecting mature crop from field: Harvesting

Harvesting is the process of collecting the mature crop from the field.

Harvesting activities include:-

Cutting
Stacking
Handling
Threshing
Cleaning
Hauling

These can be done individually or a combine harvester can be used to perform the operations simultaneously.

##Terms related to Soil Water Balance Model (SWBM)

####Soil Moisture Depletion (SMD):-

SMD is the percentage of the maximum amount of water the soil can hold that has already been used by the plant. The percent available water is the percentage of that same maximum amount that remains.
So, "65% depletion" means that 65% of the soil's total water capacity has been used. In other words, 65% of the water that was present in the soil when it was saturated is now gone. At 65% depletion, there is 35% available water remaining.
These numbers are important because different plants start to suffer stress at different soil moisture levels. Recommended allowable depletions (Doorenbos and Pruitt 1977) are expressed as a percentage of the available water (Table 1). For most crops, an allowable depletion of 50% is used.

#####Table 1:- Recommended allowable depletions Allowable moisture depletions

Soil moisture depletion can help to manage irrigation scheduling that might affect crop yield or water use.

####Evapotranspiration

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a term used to describe the amount of evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth's land surface to atmosphere.
Evaporation accounts for the movement of water to the air from sources such as the soil, canopy interception, and water bodies.
Transpiration accounts for the movement of water within a plant and the subsequent loss of water as vapor through its leaves. Evapotranspiration is an important part of the water cycle.

####Reference Evapotranspiration: An indicator of atmospheric demand for water

The evapotranspiration rate from a reference surface is called the reference crop evapotranspiration or reference evapotranspiration and is denoted as ETo.
The reference surface is a hypothetical reference crop with an assumed crop height of 0.12 m (4.72 in), a fixed surface resistance of 70 sec m-1 (70 sec 3.2ft-1) and an albedo of 0.23, closely resembling the evapotranspiration from an extensive surface of green grass of uniform height, actively growing, well-watered, and completely shading the ground.
Reference evapotranspiration was introduced to study the evaporative demand of the atmosphere independently of crop type, crop development and management practices.
The only factors affecting ETo are climatic parameters. The FAO Penman-Monteith method is widely used to calculate reference evapotranspiration.
For more details

####Crop Coefficient

Crop coefficients are properties of plants used in predicting evapotranspiration (ET). it is denoted by Kc.
Kc values account for the difference between reference evapotranspiration and actual crop evapotranspiration and link them.
Crop coefficient for a given crop and growth stage is usually determined experimentally.
Each agronomic crop has a set of specific crop coefficients used to predict water use rates at different growth stages.
An example of a Kc curve as a function of days or weeks after planting is shown in Figure 1

#####Figure1. Crop coefficients (Kc) vary according to plant growth stage [(Kc)ini: crop coefficient for initial growth stage; (Kc)dev: coefficient for plant development stage; (Kc)mid: coefficient for mid season; and (Kc)end: coefficient toward the end of the season].

####Actual Crop Evapotranspiration

The crop evapotranspiration differs distinctly from the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) as the ground cover, canopy properties and aerodynamic resistance of the crop are different from grass.
In the crop coefficient approach, crop evapotranspiration is calculated by multiplying ETo by Kc.

####Crop Water Requirement *It is amount of water required to compensate the evapotranspiration loss from the cropped field and metabolic activities of crop.

Theoretically, crop water requirement and crop evapotranspiration are considered as similar terms. But there is approximately 3 to 4 % of variation between them.

####Effective Rain: Amount of rainfall available for plant use

Effective rainfall refers to the percentage of rainfall which becomes available to plants and crops.
It considers losses due to runoff, evaporation and deep percolation.
It helps to estimate irrigation requirement.

####Irrigation requirement

Irrigation requirement is the total quantity of water applied to the land surface in supplement to the water supplied through rainfall and soil profile to meet the water needs of crops for optimum growth.
It is determined by subtracting effective rainfall from crop water requirement.