Application of Big Data and Business Analytics

Sneha Kumari, K.K. Tripathy, Vidya Kumbhar, Sneha Kumari, K. K. Tripathy, Vidya Kumbhar

• Editorial: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Año: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781800438866
• Categoría: Business
• Categoría: Information Management

Application of Big Data and Business Analytic suses advanced analytic tools to explore the solutions to problems in society, environment and industry. The chapters within bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners, encompassing a wide and diverse set of topics in almost every field.
With the increase in the availability of data, analytics has now become a major element in both the top line and the bottom line of any organization. With this in mind, Application of Big Data and Business Analytics brings together researchers, engineers and practitioners, encompassing a wide and diverse set of topics in almost every field.
The primary target audience of this book includes researchers, academicians and data scientists from a variety of disciplines interested in analyzing and application of big data analytics. However, this work will also be of general interest to postgraduates and undergraduates pursuing advanced study in big data.

Chapter 1

Data Analytics for Soil Health Management and Their Crop Mapping in Satara District

Sneha Kumari, Vidya Kumbhar and K. K. Tripathy

Abstract

The major component of agriculture production includes the type of seed, soil, climatic conditions, irrigation pattern, fertilizer, weed control, and technology used. Soil is one of the prime elements in modern times for agriculture. Soil is also one of the primary and important factors for crop production. The available soil nutrient status and external applications of fertilizers decide the growth of crop productivity (Annoymous, 2017). The upcoming research question that needs to be addressed is What is the application of soil data on soil health management for sustaining agriculture? Driven by the need, the aim of the present study is (a) to explore the soil parameters of a district, (b) compare the values with the standards, and (c) pave a way for mapping the crops with suitability of soil health. This study will not only be beneficial for the district to take appropriate steps to improve the soil health but also would help in understanding the causal relationship among soil health parameters, cropping pattern, and crop productivity.

Keywords: Soil; crop mapping; micronutrients; macronutrients; data analytics; fertilizers; pH

Background

Indian agriculture planning has always stressed on increasing production and productivity of agriculture crops to meet not only the ever increasing demands of the consumers but also meeting growing livelihood requirements of millions of small and marginal farmers of the country. Agriculture production is highly influenced by the appropriate usage of agri inputs. The major components of agriculture production include the type of seed, soil, area suitability, climatic conditions, irrigation pattern, fertilizer, weed control, and technology. With time, an increased use of fertilizers and pesticides have resulted in crop productivity growth. With an excess use of fertilizers, the country has maintained its position in the top in fruits, vegetables, and food grains. An increase in the production has questioned the detrimental impact on soil in India. The soil has been deteriorated to the extreme and the production is somewhere having an adverse impact on human health.

The spatial variation of soil chemical and physical properties influences soil and crop management efficiency (Bhatti, Mulla, & Frazier, 1991). There is a need to focus on soil properties to increase the crop productivity. Soil is the core component of agri inputs which further drives the use of fertilizers, agrochemicals, and water. The soil nutrient balance has to be maintained to build the gap between potential and actual yield (Tittonell, Shepherd, Vanlauwe, & Giller, 2008). In India, more focus is laid on soil nutrient balance practices for specific cropping systems in irrigated areas as these areas are economically more important for national food security (Rego, Rao, Seeling, Pardhasaradhi, & Rao, 2002; Rego et al., 2003). Immense scope of work exists to ensure degree of nutrient balance in less endowed dry land or semi-arid cropping systems. Soil quality has a high degree of influence on the cropping system. Indian farmers struggle to grow their crops because of soil nutrient deficiency in their farm land. Lack of soil health and the existing ineffective soil health management system at the grassroot level drive the farmers to apply more and more; this is done by the use of fertilizers, agrochemicals, and bio controlling agents. Despite several efforts made by farmers, there has been a decline in the production and productivity. This is due to insufficient mapping of the crops with the soil type and characteristics. Therefore, it is essential to map the crop with the soil dimensions and find out underlying factors of low productivity and possible ways toward effective soil health management.

Introduction

The natural resources like soil, climate, and water profoundly influence the sustainability of cropping patterns. Severe soil degradation and conversion of fertile land for civilian and infrastructure development have compelled researchers, academicians, and policy makers to map the suitability of soil for different agriculture uses. The importance of soil and its improvement has been receiving greater impetus. This is often followed by land evaluation. According to FAO (1976), land evaluation is defined as the process of land assessment involving surveys and studies used for specific purpose. Soil suitability studies are beneficial for agriculture sector as it provides information on the choice of crops to be grown for maximizing crop production. The suitability of land is a balance between soil restoration and degradation. For effective planning and utilization, soil site studies have become the necessity at present. Soil suitability models also provide guidelines to the policy makers for mapping the most suitable crops with the soil. Although Big Data have been generated by the agriculture universities and research institutes, yet it has not been correlated with soil suitability for sustaining crop production. The upcoming research question that needs to be addressed is what is the application of soil data on soil health management for sustaining agriculture. Driven by the need, the present study envisages (a) to explore the soil parameters, (b) to compare the values with the prescribed standards, and (c) to pave a way for mapping the crops with suitability of soil health. Through this study, an attempt has been made to map the suitability of crop with the present soil conditions.

Literature Review

Soil, climate, nutrient status, and management ability influence the crop yield (Fowler, 1999). Sustainable agriculture depends on good soil health to overcome the low productivity of crops (Kumari & Patil, 2017). It is essential to overcome the adverse effects of soil before sowing of seeds. Crop wise land or area suitability is a prerequisite for increasing the crop productivity. Crop production also depends on precipitation, temperature, elevation, soil, fertilizers used, and land types used. Soil is one of the primary and important factors of crop production. It is a consolidation of minerals and organic materials that help in the growth of crop (Annoymous, 2017). The available soil nutrient status and external applications of fertilizers decide the growth of crop productivity (Annoymous, 2017). Thus, land suitability and soil parameters are very important to increase the crop yield. Soil nutrient maps are designed using geographic information system (GIS)-based technique to provide information on site-specific fertilizer application to increase the crop productivity in dairy farms of Ireland and China (Fu, Tunney, & Zhang, 2010). The spatial distribution features of soil nutrient contents and their response to land use for red soil in the area of the Zhuxi small watershed were identified to improve the crop productivity (Li, Chen, Chen, & Chen, 2011). The statistical methods were also applied to study the variability of soil properties such as soil pH, soil organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) in the MaiNegus Catchment of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia (Tesfahunegn, Tamene, & Vlek, 2011). The GIS-based multicriteria overlay analysis was used to study the soil suitability for the cotton crop. The detailed analysis of morphological and physico-chemical properties concluded that not only climatic parameters but also the position of the landscape is important for the crop suitability analysis (Walke, Reddy, Maji, & Thayalan, 2012). The multivariate geo-statistical approach along with PCA was applied to study the spatial relationship between soil and crop variables in durum wheat field at the farm of the University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Central Italy. The study was useful for offering decision support for the development of site-specific crop management strategies (Casa & Castrignanò, 2008). The personal digital assistant (PDA)-based soil fertility management information system using embedded GIS was designed for Jianshui country that hel...