Lorenzo Craveri1, Carlo Riparbelli1*, Alberto Bonini2, Federica Checchetto2, Irene Delillo2, Francesco Domenichini2, Silvia R. Motta1
1ERSAF Ente Regionale per i Servizi all’Agricoltura e alle Foreste, Via Pola 12, Milano 2
ARPAV Dipartimento Regionale per la Sicurezza del Territorio Servizio Meteorologico, Via Marconi 55, Teolo (PD)
*carlo.riparbelli@ersaf.lombardia.it
Abstract
The dynamic growth of mobile communications combined with the widespread use of all types of mobile devices (i.e. mobile phones and tablets) has changed significantly daily life and business practice. One of the areas with the greatest potential impact is in the contribution that mobile applications can make to agricultural and rural development by providing access to information, markets, and services. In particular, the mobile agricultural apps show significant potential for the modernization of the agricultural sector, in both developed and developing countries.
In this paper, we consider the mobile apps developed by Lombardy and Veneto regions in support of the application of the Nitrate directive and specifically to manage the winter block of spreading required by the legislation.
Keywords:
agrometeorology, mobile applications, livestock manure, soil. Parole chiave:
agrometeorologia, applicazioni per dispositivi mobili, effluenti di allevamento, suolo. Introduction
Mobile communications technology has quickly become the world’s most common way of transmitting voice, data, and services in the developing world. Given this dramatic change, mobile applications (m-apps) in general and mobile applications for agricultural in particular hold significant potential for advancing development. M-apps are software designed to take advantage of mobile technology and can be developed for technology besides mobile phones. But mobile phones have many key advantages: affordability, wide ownership, voice communications, and instant and convenient service delivery (Qiang et al., 2012).
Agricultural information is a key component in improving agricultural production and linking increased production to remunerative markets, thus leading to improved rural livelihoods, food security and national economies. Improvement of agricultural productivity will be realized when farmers are linked to market information (Masuki et al., 2010). Farms are increasingly approaching on high-tech models, are interconnected and open to the innovation. The success of the business is determined by a reduction in production costs and an increase in quality matching with a lower environmental impact.
Agricultural companies, therefore, are looking for increasingly more precise information, both in territorial and temporal terms, that can assist them in the production system. According to the World Bank the benefits of these apps in the development of the agricultural sector could be achieved through the following ways: i) provision of better access to information, ii) provision of better access to agricultural extension services, iii) provision of better connections with the market and distribution networks, iv) provision of better access to funding opportunities. For some years now, governments have entered an era of cogitation regarding the future of public service provision. Among the prominent issues in the political
agenda stands the modernization of public agencies and the service optimization for citizens, businesses and public employees (Ntaliani et al., 2008).
This work will present some web applications developed by ERSAF in Lombardy and ARPA in Veneto with a focus on the Nitrate directive application, concerning the management of sewage and livestock manure during the winter block of spreading. Furthermore, within our communication will be shown the functionality of other APPs developed by the two entities (ERSAF and ARPAV) of interest for the Italian agricultural sector.
The Nitrates Directive (91/676/EEC) is the European Union regulatory reference for the protection of water and soil from pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources. National legislation with Ministerial Decree April 19th 1999 (Code of Good Agricultural Practice – COGAP), Legislative Decree 152/2006 and the Ministerial Decree February 25th 2016 defined common rules for the Regions for the adoption of the Nitrates Directive by the regional governments. According to national legislation, the Regions are tasked to define Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and drafting their Action Plans reviewed and updated at four-year intervals. The recent Ministerial Decree February 25th establishes the methods of agronomic use, application doses and periods of prohibition of the use of manure, slurry, sludges, sewage, and other organic and nitrogen fertilizers for the autumn and winter season in the NVZs. The article 40 states that the Regions and Autonomous Provinces may provide for an organization of different ban periods, considering the specific local weather conditions and its consequences on crop management. Under these conditions, the Action Programs of the Padano-Veneto basin regions set a 60-day continuous winter banning period in December and January and a further 30 days, even non-continuous, to be settled in November and in February.
To define livestock manure distribution periods and areas, the Regions have developed specific agrometeorological bulletins for farmers, implemented in specific m-apps.
Materials and Methods
Lombardy and Veneto have split the territory into homogeneous areas to modelling the agrometeorological conditions (i.e. rainfall forecast, calculated evapotranspiration), the soil characteristics (i.e. texture, available water content), the crops (i.e. meadow, winter crop) and the crops/soil management (i.e. soil preparation for early or late autumn sowing, crop residues, soil trafficability) in order to have enough data to let the m-apps run.
The meteorological services were born in the early 90s with the aim, among others, to install and manage the network of agrometeorological detection stations necessary to fit the request of the farmers and to have agrometeorological information useful in the management of their own farms. In those years, it was very complex to provide timely news at low cost. The newsletters, for example, were mainly sent by ordinary mail or fax, which implied that delivery times weight significantly to the usefulness of the information provided. The advent of the Internet was the first step towards a solving solution, but it took several years to become a real instrument for almost all farmers. Since the beginning of the 2000s, therefore, the mail transmission of the paper bulletin has been suspended, to let the possibility of its consultation on the authority websites. With the opportunity to the internet access directly with mobile devices has opened up a new challenge for the agrometeorology: reach the individual user directly on their smartphone, anywhere and at any time, providing processed information in real time, consultable, possibly, through specific applications.
LOMBARDY REGION
Since October 31th 2016, the regional Agency for the Agriculture and Forest Services of Lombardy (ERSAF), based on the weather information of Environmental Protection Agency of Lombardy (ARPA Lombardy), has carried out the “Nitrate Bulletin”.
The information support is based on:
• 6 soil stations of the regional network ARMOSA, dedicated to monitor the behavior of nitrogen and phosphorous in soil-climate-crop systems to obtain data for the soil water balance;
• daily data on rainfall, temperature, wind, solar radiation, relative humidity and evapotranspiration of the reference agrometeorological stations covering the Lombardy;
• weather forecast for the next 3-4 days based on ECMWF and COSMO (7 km grid) weather models. The reference rainfall threshold has been set at 5mm cumulated average in 24 hours.
The integrated analysis of soil and agrometeorological data identify 6 macro-areas, each one defined by a dominant soil and a reference meteorological station. Green and red colors
define the permission or the ban to spread livestock manure in each macro-area (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 – The 6 meteorological macro-areas of Lombardy: green – possibility to spread; red prohibition to spread livestock manure.
Fig. 1 – Le 6 macro-aree meteorologiche della Lombardia: in verde – possibilità di distribuire; in rosso – divieto di
distribuire effluenti di allevamento.
The m-app for the implementation of the nitrate directive in Lombardy gives the opportunity to the farmers to get updated concerning the legislative references. The users can identify the municipality and get the information about the ban every 3/4 days. In the nitrate app (Fig. 2) has been implemented also the information about the Accordo Aria limitations: a deal among the regions of North Italy developed to limit the increasing of the concentration of PM10 resulting from ammonia emissions. ERSAF has already developed other applications for smartphones as the Agrometeorological Bulletin: issued weekly, it provides useful information for the farm management activities. It holds the meteorological data of the last week together with the weather forecast for the next days and an update on the phenological information and on the phytopathological conditions of the main crops of our territory. The weather forecast is provided by ARPA Lombardia.
VENETO REGION
The first agrometeorological app, realized by ARPAV – DRST Meteorological Service, concerns the application of the Nitrates directive. The legislation provides that during the period of winter prohibition of spreading there is the possibility of its suspension based on meteorological trends and weather forecasts.
To evaluate the presence of suitable or unsuitable conditions for the manure spreading in winter, two sources of information were considered: the data of the stations of the ARPAV network, to assess albeit roughly, the soil moisture based on previous precipitations and the meteorological model EPS (Ensemble Prediction System) produced at the ECMWF to estimate the amount of precipitation expected in the following days. Veneto has been divided into 15 homogeneous macro- areas and each of them has been associated, therefore, with rainfall stations and forecasting points of the meteorological model (Fig. 3). The data relating to the previous rains are those recorded in the previous 3 days and up to the time of issue of the bulletin. The necessary condition to suspend the prohibition of distribution is that the average precipitation value in stations located within the meteorological macro area of interest is equal to or less than 10 mm cumulative.
Fig. 2 – Some example of the m-apps Agrometeorology of Lombardy.
Fig. 2 – Qualche esempio delle app Nitrati e Agrometeo Lombardia.
The forecasting system is composed of a package of models (51) that represent a swarm of variants of the main forecast (deterministic model) obtained by modifying the initial accordingly conditions. These variants of the model are considered equiprobable; of each of the 51 models the cumulative precipitation forecast from the time of issue of the bulletin to the following 3 days is taken into consideration. The results obtained are translated into a probability of exceeding the 10 mm cumulative precipitation threshold over the entire period.
The possibility of spreading is only granted if time the bulletin is dry; and that the moisture
maintained for at least another 3 days. The result of this evaluation process is produced for each municipality in the region and published on the ARPAV website. With the m is possible to access the information’s directly with the mobile phone. The m-app has a municipal value and, for the municipalities that are partially included in the Nitrate Vulnerable Areas of agricultural origin, there are two bulletins, one indicative of the municipal portion included in the Ordinary Zone (ZO) and one for the part included in the apps Nitrate and
e app Nitrati e Agrometeo della
The forecasting system is composed of a package of models (51) that represent a swarm of variants of the main forecast (deterministic model) obtained by modifying the initial accordingly conditions. These variants of the model are of each of the 51 models the cumulative precipitation forecast from the time of issue of the bulletin to the following 3 days is taken into consideration. The probability of exceeding n threshold over the entire The possibility of spreading is only granted if the soils at the moisture of the soil are maintained for at least another 3 days. The result of this evaluation process is produced for each municipality in the region and published on the ARPAV website. With the m-app it is possible to access the information’s directly with the mobile app has a municipal value and, for the municipalities that are partially included in the Nitrate Vulnerable Areas of agricultural origin, there are two bulletins, one indicative of the municipal portion included in the part included in the
Vulnerable Zone to the nitrates of agricultural origin (Z The bulletin is produced daily between November 1
Fig. The
Veneto macro-areas and an example of the “Agrometeo Nitrati” bulletin as it appears on ARPAV's
Fig. 3 - Le 15 macro-aree meteorologiche del Veneto e un esempio del bollettino Agrometeo Nitrati così come appare sul sito web dell’ARPAV.
February 28th of each year and indicates, in a binding way, if you can distribute the manure on the day of consultation and the following days. It is also reported the weather trend for another 2 days. The bulletin is made up of different boxes: in the two largest ones are reported binding indications on the possibility or not of spreading and in the two smaller boxes there are indications on the possibility of distribution for a further two days to be confirmed or not with the publication of subsequent bulletins. To facilitate the immediate interpretation of the bulletin, the boxes are also associated with a color with a precise meaning. Because the
the bulletins already issued the authority use this function monitoring and control purposes
Fig. 4 – An example of the Veneto.
Fig. 4 – Un esempio della app Agrometeo Nitrati del Veneto rates of agricultural origin (ZVN). The bulletin is produced daily between November 1st and
3 – 15
areas and an example of the “Agrometeo Nitrati” bulletin as it appears on ARPAV's website.
aree meteorologiche del Veneto e un esempio del bollettino Agrometeo Nitrati così come appare sul
of each year and indicates, in a binding way, if you can distribute the manure on the day of consultation and the following days. It is also reported the weather trend for another 2 days. The bulletin is made up of different boxes: in are reported binding indications on the possibility or not of spreading and in the two smaller boxes there are indications on the possibility of distribution for a further two days to be confirmed or not with the publication of cilitate the immediate interpretation of the bulletin, the boxes are also associated with a color with a m-app gives the option to recall the authority use this function for purposes (Fig. 4).
An example of the m-app “Agrometeo Nitrati” of
ARPAV has already developed other applications for smartphones and among others that may have an interest in agro-meteorology we want to remember:
• APP ARPAV METEO through which you can access the weather forecast by selecting the municipality of interest.
• ARPAV AIR QUALITY APP through which the Ozone and PM10 levels detected in the ARPAV monitoring stations located in the regional territory can be viewed.
• ARPAV THUNDERSTORMS APP will soon be available, which uses an automatic radar data analysis system to sign the proximity of intense rainfall; the signal is made through automatic notifications, which warn of the presence of heavy rainfall within a certain distance from a municipality of interest to the user. Results and Discussion
The objective of Ministerial Decree February 25th 2016 and consequently of nitrate bulletins is to manage manure distributions in a more adhering manner to meteorological conditions and soil water content.
Since the m-apps were implemented and made available for the farmers an increase about the 20% in the user’s number has been recorded.
Conclusions
The m-apps described are an example of a modern agrometeorological application that drift from a specific regulatory requirement to improve the management of the livestock manure spreading from the environmental and business point of view.
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