Geoinformatics to transform Dairy Health Management
The field of geoinformatics has a very promising future in the dairy sector and has the potential to lead the next white revolution in the country.
Smart technologies are the need of the hour to cater to the ever increasing population of the country. With India spearheading in space technology, many vital services required for development lie in the hands of satellites. Be it navigation, communication, defence, health, agriculture, etc. the reliance on satellites and their applications has been increasing day by day. The stalwart in space research and development in India i.e. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been credited for making satellite applications handy for use in agriculture and allied sectors. The current operations which are being undertaken by the use of satellites in agriculture and allied sectors are (i) horticultural crop inventory and site suitability for expansion in under-utilized areas, (ii) crop assessment using medium and high resolution satellite data, (iii) field data collection with field photos using mobile app,
(iv) crop cutting experiments based on satellite derived crop vigour information. Watershed management and irrigation system analysis is also being done by the use of GIS and RS.
All the above initiatives provisioned rural development (including agricultural and livestock development), communication, education, training, etc. and strengthened the extension support system of the country. The collective efforts of ISRO and Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare have led to development of satellite based monitoring and advisory systems.
Present Applications of Geoinformatics
Geoinformatics are being increasingly used for smart dairy management and a new buzzword i.e. precision dairy farming has been developed through the same in due course of time. Precision dairy farming is the principal means by which sensors are subjected in the dairy production and management. The animal needs are defined by sensors and automatically delivered to the individual dairy animals by different applications. Precision dairy management employs emerging technologies such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Geospatial technologies such Geographic Information System (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) and Remote
Sensing (RS). Dairy herders are using GIS based maps, GPS devices, mobile phones and the web for monitoring the movements of herds, monitoring animal behaviour, herd management and for accurately pinpointing outbreaks of livestock diseases. Precision Dairy Monitoring Technologies (PDMT) are those technologies that help in monitoring health of a dairy animal, time of insemination for effective conception, forecasting parturition process, managing herds, etc. and
are currently trending amongst commercial dairy farmers. These systems, therefore, have the potential to reduce labour and management costs whilst increasing milk yield. All the above functions can be achieved by the use of smart technologies like smart collars, automatic feeders, GPS based pedometers, GPS based virtual fences, GIS guided cameras for body score estimation, etc. Research and development in the field of Internet of Things (IOT) have created many opportunities and applications for monitoring animals and have been speeding up the development of
PDMT systems. While using the internet, all the applications can be linked to a central server and hence management becomes easy. A single person sitting in front of the computer can manage a herd of a thousand dairy animals. Geospatial technology as a method can be used to maximize the farm efficiency and hence productivity.
Several applications of the geospatial technology like mapping forage stock, feed forecaster, individual cattle database, fuel consumption for field operations and farm inputs database for handheld computers with GPS navigation can further aid in managing dairy production and health. These information tools not only enhance the decision making process but also help in understanding the land-use patterns, management of farm staff, operations and other managemental operations in dairy farms with increased precision that result in better monitoring of the farm resources. GIS can be used to produce maps of disease incidence, prevalence, mortality, morbidity on farm, region, or national levels and has been included in decision support systems for control of infectious diseases in animals. Advanced digital tools like chips and sensors are becoming more popular and standard equipment for management of dairy farms and animals reared in them. These tools are placed in proximity to the animal for monitoring and recording data through GPS. By analyzing the recorded data, the farm manager interprets not only the current state of the individual animal’s physiological and health status but also warns the manager even before any problem occurs in the animal.
RS techniques have a unique capability of recording data in visible as well as invisible (i.e. ultraviolet, reflected infrared, thermal infrared and microwave etc.) part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hence, the phenomenon, which cannot be seen by human eye, can be observed through remote sensing techniques i.e. large animals which are affected by disease, or insect attack can be detected by RS techniques much before human eyes see them. The movement of disease causing vectors and their density can be tracked by the help of RS. The migration of disease causing vectors which may include arthropods, bats, birds, wild animals, etc. can be traced and timely countermeasures can safeguard health of the animals.
Projection for the future
From the above discussion, it is evident that geoinformatics play an important role in dairy development. Although the stated applications have been used in developed countries but can be replicated in India as well by reducing the expenditure to be incurred on them or subsidising their procurement. There is not an iota of doubt that geoinformatics have the potential to revolutionise dairy health management along with extension delivery in developing countries like India. It can be used for geo-tagging the resource persons, breed tracts, elite animals, project areas, areas in which project has already completed, successful farmers, commercial and scientifically managed farms, so that their linkages may increase and people which are willing to start their livestock enterprise may visit them for having practical experience. Further, the areas with high productivity and areas with low productivity can be mapped and interventions which are being pursued for higher productivity can be replicated in the areas with low productivity by making husbandry oriented maps. Disease monitoring and surveillance can be prompted along with reporting epidemics in less time. As far as collection of data is concerned, data can be approximated by using the principles of geoinformatics and artificial intelligence. Trends and projections related to livestock population, density, milk production, productivity, waste production, etc. can be done. Development and implementation of WEB-GIS based Livestock Information Management System (WGLIMS) is very much essential to collect, analyse, model, visualise and disseminate data available on livestock in India. By employing geoinformatics and its applications, advantages can be sought not only in time and costs, but also in a more comprehensive and tactful manner in resourceful and agrarian countries like India.