AEP: An Automatic Decision Support Software for Integrated Plant Protection

A decision support software for greenhouse plant protection has to meet several requirements in order to be accepted and applied by growers. It should comply with the different operational needs of growers and should be helpful for inexperienced growers but also optimize plant protection strategies for experienced ones. Additionally a large number of cultures and pests should be covered and implementation of new crops, beneficials, pests and insecticides must be easy. Also handling should be easy and time saving. All software parameters should be adaptable to grower specific needs. The program should not decide on the control regime but rather give recommendations and provide data storage to optimize plant protection strategies. Thereby learning effects are stimulated and motivation to adapt decision processes in plant protection practice is increased. In this article we show the structure of a decision support software (AEP-Automatische Entscheidungshilfe fur den integrierten Pflanzenschutz unter Glas) and describe its functionality for the model system tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)-whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum)-natural enemy (Encarsia formosa).