PROGIS Software

“Change management” is a standard term used in business. Because of the change in climate, the agri-forest-environment must look for new models enabling fast and precise decisions based on facts. Rural areas need better management as farmers, struggling with increased labour and equipment costs, are confronted worldwide with trade liberalisation and have a higher risk of bad harvests due to the climate change. Management systems must be introduced fast and worldwide. The question is how?

PROGIS has developed a GIS platform called WINGIS with applications for rural area management and is the only provider worldwide of an integrated ICT-based software technology for rural area management.

How it works

Base data like orthoimages or field or forest polygons are available globally. Take Google or Virtual Earth as a starting point for the visualisation background and use low-cost GPS or dGPS tools for precision. With GIS (Geographical Information Systems) and applications, we can plan on top of maps, simulate several years, calculate details, develop business plans or work out data for a necessary insurance covering environmental risks. Embedded expert models, filled by local experts with data (machines, crops, fertilisers, herbicides, methods etc.), enable users with one click to obtain detailed documentation of all activities which a farmer plans to do or has done, get business-calculation data, develop nutrient plans to optimise the use of fertilisers or run energy or CO2 balances for future carbon credit financing.

A vital network

Rural area management has to be done within a network of qualified advisers and public and/or private entities cooperating with stakeholders like large farmers, farm cooperatives, banks, insurance companies, farmers business partners, equipment manufacturers, agro-chemical or seed suppliers and buyers of agricultural products. With the PROGIS software, farmers can optimise their logistics, compare their farm business with other farmers anonymously, buy or sell within groups to get better prices, send traceability documents (e.g. Global-GAP), run optional precision farming tools, provide business plans or other required data to banks and insurance companies, do tasks for land consolidation, ecology evaluation or risk management. The PROGIS software provides modern land management tools which cover biodiversity, sustainability, multipurpose land use and its economic benefit and evaluate land use potentials and carrying capacities based on reliable data. In the future, these tasks will only be fulfilled by motivated and goal-oriented farmers.

EC (European Commission) studies show farm advice is not what it should be. New technologies will help to manage individual farms efficiently because the work of an average farm can be planned with a few clicks. Developing countries have an advantage and can set up new structures with public-private partnership models which is easier to do than to change existing ones. To keep data confidential, trust centres will be the recipient and administrator of the data.

The correct use of new technologies like AGROffice (rural area management software of PROGIS) will ensure sustainable growth, efficient use of land and water reserves, optimal use of fertilisers, pesticides and machines, create fewer emissions like CO2, higher productivity, better soil fertility, an increase in the longevity of livestock, fewer livestock emissions and better use of manure.

A new generation of farmers

According to EC studies, young farmers want to use innovations, increase the quality of their products and satisfy local markets. Large farms or smallholder cooperatives will be able to apply precision farming with these new technologies.

The “Bio-economy” within the EC is worth 1.5 trillion Euros and employs 22 million people. It will be the sector of the future worldwide. Studies about the Kondratieff wave – the longest growth cycles of the world economy – show the informatics, the environment, the biotechnology and the health sectors in a leading position. All of them lead to agri-forest-enviro management which is necessary for a renaissance of farmers and which will help to fight climate change, produce food for up to ten billion people in 2050, produce (with the second generation bio-energy models) food and bio-energy without competition to food production and help to create a better environment. All this has to be managed with the help of technology.

Bookkeeping data only without an evaluation of environmental values is wrong. PROGIS technologies and models assess the environmental services of farmers. The environment does not allow free rides anymore. It has to be managed under ethical rules with our best know how. Governments are responsible for many failures of the past despite knowing better. The future should divide legislation, administration and control. There will also be a huge amount of new jobs for the better management of agriculture, forestry and environment which will lead to a better future for us all and perhaps the survival of our planet.

W: www.progis.com