Agriculture Cloud Related Activitiesin NARO

Takuji Kiura1, Kei Tanaka1, Tokihiro Fukatsu1, Tomokazu Yoshoda1 and Masayuki Hirafuji2

1Agricultural Research Center, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Ibaraki, Japan(Tel : +81-29-838-7026; E-mail: kiura@affrc.go.jp)

2Memuro Upland Farming Research Station, Hokkaido Agricultural Research Center, National Agriculture and FoodResearch Organization, Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract: 16 years ago, agriculture related research had been started by researchers in information research sections ofNARO, and field wireless sensor network (Field Server), virtual meteorological data integration system (MetBroker),Agricultural Model Developing Framework, etc, had been developed. In this paper, those products are introduced, andagricultural application, employing those products are summarized. And ideas to use them for Large Scale PrecisionAgriculture and high throughput phenotype measuring.

Keywords: Field Sensor Network, Service Oriented Architecture, Crop Models, Data Integration

1. INTRODUCTION

16 years ago, application softwares ware soled andrunning on personal computers. The Internet warespreading rapidly and widely for public use. At thattime, researchers in the field of information in NAROstarted to develop distributed information systemservices in the Internet, and build up agriculturalapplication based on those services, Service OrientedArchitecture.

Today, the Internet technologies, so called “Cloud”are used widely in our everyday life. This shows that theapproach taken by NARO researchers becomes commonand quite natural system in the Internet.

NARO main products are “Field Server [1]”,Metbroker, and Agricultural Model DevelopingFramework, those gave big impacts to AgriculturalInformation Research in Asian region.

2. FIELD SERVER

The word “Field Server” is used to refer as sensornetwork products licensed by National Agriculture andFood Research Organization (NARO) and also theconcept “low cost environmental monitoring sensornode, set in outdoor, especially agricultural fields”. TheField Server has a web server showing sensorinformation connected such as, air temperature,

humidity, solar panel output, camera, etc [Fig. 1]. Theconcept of “Field Server” had been spread in Asiancountries. For example, in Thailand, Hydro and AgroInformatics Institute deployed 342 sensor nodes havingrain gauge to monitor precipitation.

Because the old Field Server is a passive node, dataof sensors must be collected by accessing the FieldServer. Sometimes Field Server could not use Global IPaddress, and it was difficult to collect data from FieldServer. And production of micro computer chip, used inField Server had been stopped.

To overcome those problem, new Field Server hasopen source micro computer, Arduino [2], had beendeveloped. Arduino can be extended by attaching manykind of shield cards. Unfortunately, Arduino dose notcontrol electric power of shields. To reduce powerconsumption of new Field Server, a board, calledmother board, with relay switches had been insertedbetween Arduino and shields. The diagram of motherboard is also opened and can be used without anycharge. New Field Server pushes sensor data to publiccloud, and difficulties of Field Server deployment ahdbeen solved.

New Field Server can be maid using open sourcechips, board, uses public cloud services for data storage.Application can be developed using open APIs of publicFig. 1: Old Field Server Deployment

Web ServerWi-Fi and/or Cellar-phoneCameras: 0.3-8M pixelSensors: up to 24

Ambient air temperature/humiditySolar radiation/UVCO2 ,SO2, NO2, H2S, CH 4

Leaf wetnessSoil moisture/temperatureEC, pHWater/Air pressure

CounterInsect, Rainfall gauge

LED Lighting

Fig. 2: Open Field Server uses public cloud

cloud services [Fig. 2]. So it called “Open Field Server”and everyone can make their own Open Field Serverwithout license fee. To make Big Data of agriculturalfields, Open Field Server plays the main role.

3. METBROKER

For agricultural decision makings, meteorologicaldata and weather forecast are necessary or commonlyused. Many crop models also require meteorologicaldata. Many meteorological data sources are available inthe Internet, but they don't have common/standardaccess method nor common/standard data format. Tohide those heterogeneousness among meteorologicaldata sources and provide common data access method todevelopers, the virtual meteorological data integrationservice called MetBroker [Fig. 3] had been developedand serviced [3].

Currently MetBroker supports meteorologicalobservation data (over 20000 points from over 20 datasource) , climate data from Field Servers, reanalyzeddata using meteorological model and observation data,and will support spacially downscaled weather forecastdata soon. Using weather forecast data, all existingapplications of Metbroker can be used for predictionpotentially.

Due to network security issues, MetBroker service isclosed now, but a wrapper service of MetBroker, calledMetXML can be used instead [4]. The only one thing todo to retrieve weather data using MetXML creatingURL for your requests. MetXML provides a webapplication to help URL creation for metXML.MetXML also has a function to change resulting datafile format using XML style sheets.

4. AGRICULTURAL MODEL DEVELOPINGFRAMEWORK

There were many crop models in the world at thattime and implemented by each researchers in the fieldof crop modeling. DSSAT[5] integrated soil-watermodel and major crop models and was the most famouscrop systems model and used many country.

NARO team found that considerably large part ofsource code, implementing crop models, is used for datainput/output, display and user interface. Therefor, toimplement algorithm of crop models dose not requiresmuch coding. Using object oriented design, AgriculturalModel Developing Framework was developed usingJava language, and succeeded to make common dataobjects, required crop model implementation [Fig. 4].

Because Java language is one of network frienddeveloping language, it is quite natural to makeAgricultural Model Developing Fretwork networkenabled. Now, Agriculture Model DevelopingFramework is becoming a collection of web serviceAPI. Using this new framework, NARO tries to developdecision support systems for aquaculture in Japan.

5. APPLICATIONS

5.1 Field Server DerivativesMany researchers knew that weather data was

necessary for good agriculture, but weather stations tooexpensive for agriculture. Field Server concept brokethis common knowledge, and was spreed into Asiancountries through Asia Pacific Advanced Network(APAN) [6]. In each country they developed their ownFiled Server derivatives according Field ServerConcepts. Fig. 5 shows Field Server in Thailand (left),

Fig. 3: MetBroker integrates weather data

Fig. 4: Model Developing Framework

Fig. 5: Field Server Derivatives

and Field Server in Philippines (right).

5.2 Crop ModelsFig. 6 to 8 are examples of models implemented

using Agricultural Model Developing Fame works, andthose models are client applications of MetBroker.

Fig. 9 shows “Simulator for Cultivation Possibility ofRice”. This application used SIMRIW [7] for ricegrowth model, implemented using the framework, is a

client of MetBroker. NARO team try to extend thisapplication other models and other major crops in Asia.

6. IDEAS

6.1 CLOPCLOP is an abbreviation of “CLoud Open Platform

for agriculture” [Fig. 10]. It is proposed that allagricultural application developer including NAROteam should make their own services compliant to it,and make “Agricultural Big Data”.

Mining “Agricultural Big Data”, hight skilled farmersactivities are characterized and their skills succeeded byyoung farmers, hidden relation among observed itemsmay be found and new decision support system may beimplemented. All results using Big Data shall contributeto CLOP.

Field Server already uses public cloud, it is easy tomake Field Server compliant to CLOP. MetBroker isalready web service so implementing a CLOP wrapperisenough to do so. And Agricultural Model DevelopingFramework is a part of CLOP APIs.

But there is no standard data transfer format. NAROteam already approaching this issue. NARO proposedFIX-pms (Field Information eXchange fromat forproduction management system) as one of standard datatransfer formats for CLOP. FIX-pms is an extension ofAgroXML and uses other XML schema such as GPX,GML etc. Simultaneously, NARO team collect wordand its meanings using MediaWiki and SemanticMediaWiki extension.

6.2 Field PhenomicsTo adapt climate change and to feed world

population, crop breeding may play main role now. Andgenetic crop breeding can accelerate it. Fortunately,hight performance DNA sequencers are available inreasonable price, increase the quantity. and improve thequality of genotype information of crops.

But phenotype information dose not increased so fastand the quality of phenotype information is notimproved, because data is basically collected by hand.Automatic phenotyping are only done in laboratories orgreen houses, i.e. in the artificial envoronment, and

Fig. 6: Grape Flowering Estimation

Fig. 7: Pear Model

Fig. 8: Weed Prediction Model

Fig. 9: Estimation of Potential Rice Yield

Fig. 10: CLOP creates "Big Data"

measure individual plant. In many cases, crops arecultivated as plant communities in outdoor, in thenatural environment and . So it is also important tomeasure phenotypes in the cropping field and in a plantcommunity, called “Field Phenomics”. AgricultureSensor Cloud and resulting Big Data maybe useful forField Phenomics.

6.3 Large Scale Precision Agriculture Mining of Agriculture Big Data is difficult in Japan,

because cropping field in Japan is small andheterogeneities, such as cropping method, soilcondition, water availably, weather condition, etc. Itseems easy for large scale precision agriculture in theArgentine. once Agriculture Big Data is created.

Obviously, Agriculture Big Data is useful to controlAgricultural Machines and basic data for GoodAgricultural Practice (GAP).

REFERENCES

[1] Field Server Home,“ http://model.job.affrc.go.jp/FieldServer/FieldServerEn/default.htm”, browsed on June 24, 2013.

[2] Arduino - HomePage, “http://www.arduino.cc/”, browsed on June 24, 2013. [3] S. Ninomiya et. al., "Seamless Integration of SensorNetwork and Legacy Weather Databases byMetBroker," saint-w, pp.68, 2007 InternationalSymposium on Applications and the Internet Workshops(SAINTW'07), 2007.“ http://model.job.affrc.go.jp/FieldServer/FieldServerEn/Concept.html” [4] MetXML (MetBroker XML), “http://pc105.narc.affrc.go.jp/metbroker/xml/”, browsedon June 23, 2013 (in Japanese)[5] DSSAT.net | Official Home of the DSSAT CropSystems Model, “http://dssat.net/”, browsed on Jone 24,2013.[6] Welcome to Asia-Pacific Advanced Network,“http://www.apan.net/”, browsed on June 24, 2013.[7] Simulator for Cultivation Possibility of Rice,“http://dias.tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/simriw/en/”, browsed onJune 24, 2013.

Note: PDF version of this document will be availablesoon at http://www.agrid.org/2013/kiura-201307.pdf