A cloud-based farm management system:architecture and implementation

Recent technological advances have paved the way for developing and offering advanced services for the stakeholders in the agricultural sector. A paradigm shift is underway from proprietary and monolithic tools to Internet-based, cloud hosted, open systems that will enable more effective collaboration between stakeholders. This new paradigm includes the technological support of application developers to create specialized services that will seamlessly interoperate, thus creating a sophisticated and customisable working environment for the end users. We present the implementation of an open architecture that instantiates such an approach, based on a set of domain independent software tools called "generic enablers" that have been developed in the context of the FI-WARE project. The implementation is used to validate a number of innovative concepts for the agricultural sector such as the notion of a services' market place and the system's adaptation to network failures. During the design and implementation phase, the system has been evaluated by end users, offering us valuable feedback. The results of the evaluation process validate the acceptance of such a system and the need of farmers to have access to sophisticated services at affordable prices. A summary of this evaluation process is also presented in this paper. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

A közjavak és a mezőgazdaság kritikus kérdései a közös agrárpolitikában

Az Európai Bizottság nemrég véglegesítette a javaslatait a Közös Agrárpolitika 2014-2020 közötti időszakára vonatkozóan. A javaslatok, amelyek egy korábbi, 2010. novemberi Bizottsági kommunikáción alapulnak, elindították az új szabályozásról való egyeztetések jogi folyamatát. A javaslatok egyik legfontosabb témaköre, amely különösen érdekes a távoli vidéki területek számára, a Közös Agrárpolitika szerepe a közjavak előállításában. A cikk célja kettős: egyrészt áttekinti a főbb megoldási javaslatokat és véleményeket a szakirodalomban és a Bizottsági kommunikációban a közjavak 2013 utáni szabályozását illetően, másrészt kritikus szemmel reagál az ötletekre és igyekszik konkrét megoldásokat javasolni. Az eredmények szerint a mezőgazdasághoz kötődő közjavak előállítása érdekében történő állami beavatkozás egyik legnagyobb problémája a mérési módszerek tökéletlensége. A cikk megkérdőjelezi, hogy vajon a kompenzáció logikája mennyiben illeszkedik a közjavak problematikájához és hogy vajon a kézenfekvő megoldás – a közjavak előállítása államilag finanszírozott kompenzációs kifizetésekkel – ténylegesen megoldást nyújt-e a háttérben meghúzódó problémákra. _____ The European Commission has finalised legislative proposals that set out the overall direction of CAP reform for 2013-2020. These proposals, building on an earlier Communication of the Commission in November 2010, initiate the legislative procedure to agree the new regulations. One of the key issues in the Communications, particularly important for remote areas, was the role of future CAP to ensure the delivery of public goods. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it reviews the major options and opinions being advanced in the literature and the Communication on the role of public goods in the CAP after 2013. Second, through a reflective critique, it reacts to the ideas and tries to identify appropriate solutions. Results suggest that one of the biggest problems with the public intervention for the provision of public goods in agriculture lies in the insufficiency of measurement methods. The paper questions whether the logic of compensation properly appreciates the nature of the public good problems and whether the apparently obvious solution – provision of compensatory payments from the public purse – actually solves any of the underlying problems.

A Geographic Perspective of Cuban Landscapes

Beginning in the era of the Spanish conquest and taking the reader right up to the present day, this book focuses on how the landscape of Cuba has changed and evolved into the environment we see today. It illustrates the range of factors – economic, political and cultural – that have determined Cuba’s physical geography, and explores the shifting conservation measures which have been instituted in response to new methods in agriculture and land management. The text uses historical documents, fieldwork, Geographic Information System (GIS) data and remotely-sensed satellite imagery to detail Cuba’s extensive land-use history as well as its potential future. The author goes further to analyze the manner, speed and methods of landscape change, and examines the historical context and governing agendas that have had an impact on the relationship between Cuba’s inhabitants and their island. Gebelein also assesses the key role played by agricultural production in the framework of international trade required to sustain Cuba’s people and its economy. The book concludes with a review of current efforts by Cuban and other research scientists, as well as private investors, conservation managers and university professors who are involved in shaping Cuba’s evolving landscape and managing it during the country’s possible transition to a more politically diverse, enfranchised and open polity.