In October there has been a large update of WWW.PLATFORM.IPMDECISIONS.NET. including the ability to use historical data to review how risk has developed during the season. After creating an account, adding a farm location, and selecting relevant decision support systems (DSS), users have direct access to a dashboard with risk information for their crops.
Improvements
The Platform has been up and running for a year now and user numbers have grown steadily during the cropping season. The most recent update of the IPM Decisions Platform has now been released. This update adds new functionality to the system and updates the User Interface.
The main changes are:
- A section on the home page that provides the list of DSS available on the platform.
- Updated user alert icons.
- Display of the DSS output for the whole growing season by default (historical data).
- The ability to filter DSS output by date.
- The ability to expand the charts to a pop-up, with additional ability to scroll and zoom into the charts using mouse actions (scroll button to zoom, left button and move mouse to scroll).
- A button to allow download of the DSS output.
In addition, we have added the ability to update your password in the User Account section.
How to make best use of the Platform?
If you are a farmer or adviser:
- Take some time during the winter to read the information on the Platform about what DSS are available, how they work and how to interpret the pest risk predictions.
- Many of the DSS are not active outside the growing season, but the information about them is still available by clicking on the information buttons.
- Decide which DSS look interesting to try next season.
- DSS give information about certain important components of pest risk, this information needs to be combined with ‘in-field’ experience and observations to make a pesticide treatment decision.
- If you are not yet confident in a particular DSS, then review the risk predictions that it makes during the season and compare the predictions with what you see in the field subsequently.
- Platform DSS are not yet validated for all European countries. But you can get an idea of the value of a DSS for your location by evaluating the DSS output with historical data, this functionality is now available in the platform under the ‘DSS Comparison Dashboard’.