The Hindu Business Line : Click and weed it out

Apart from better seeds and more efficient farming implements, technology promises to aid agriculture in the identification of weeds and safer methods for their destruction. OSCAR (Open Source Simple Computer for Agriculture) is an open-source based weed identification software meant for the rice-wheat cropping systems of the Indo-Gangetic plains spread over Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Primarily relying on a visual interface, using a plant drawing, the software can be used even by a non-literate person. Users can select characters such as the leaf or root that closely matches their crop, and the software will help identify the weed species that are likely to attack and suggest appropriate control measures.

USER FRIENDLY

"It uses only drawings instead of technical jargon and provides users the freedom to choose the character that needs to be described. Missing information or data are permitted, allowing for the identification of incomplete samples. A certain level of observational errors is tolerated and at each step of the identification process, a probability of resemblance is calculated for each species," says Balasubramanian D., Manager, Information Systems, French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP).

The multilingual program can cater to a larger section of people. All the technical terms used are highlighted and, at a click, hypertext-illustrated definitions are available.

A collaborative effort by the IFP, the Rice-Wheat Consortium for Indo-Gangetic Plains, the France-based CIRAD (Centre de Coop‚ration Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le D‚veloppement) and the Communication and Innovation Studies Group from Wageningen University in The Netherlands, the project is co-financed by the European Commission's Asia IT&C programme under the "Get-in-touch & Keep-in-touch" activities in the focus areas of agriculture and society.

UNIQUE EFFORT

"OSCAR promotes aggregation of information not only from academic/research institutions but also from traditional knowledge systems, for example, the cultural practices in weed control like hand weeding is also incorporated and can be refined across regions," says Balasubramanian.

The weed control measures suggested include botanical, mechanical and cultural control measures. The species description pages are available in English, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali.

The application is available free of cost in MS Windows, Linux, PDA (Simputer) and Webbased versions at www.oscarasia.org. Additional information can be added in the user's personal copy of the software. If the additions are relevant for all, the info could be sent for verification and publication. Registration is recommended before downloading the software.

"OSCAR sets an example for open source development in agriculture and encourages similar applications for third world needs," says Balasubramanian.

paromita@thehindu.co.in