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Agricultural Sciences in China

2011, 10(5): 805-812 May 2011

2011, CAAS. All rights reserved. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/S1671-2927(11)60065-5

Development of a Non-Pollution Orange Fruit Expert System Software Based

on ASP.NET

LI Yi-shan1 and HONG Li-fang2

1Institute of Network Technology, Bei jing University of Post s and Telecommunic ations, Bei jing 100876, P.R.China

2Agricu ltural Environment and Resource Ins tit ute, Yunnan Academy of Agricu ltural Sciences, Kunming 650205, P.R.China

Abstract

Based on ASP.NET, a orange fruit tree fertilizer expert system software was developed. The system could simulate anddecide an annual fertilization plan for young and mature trees in terms of geographical position and climate. This paper

introduced the design conditions, framework, production, and deployment of the system. It exhibited characters of

orange specialty and was a typical online agriculture expert system. The use of the system for orange fruit management

could decrease production cost, guarantee orange quality and improve economical benefit at the same time. Farmer using

the system saved N input by 41-238 g/plant, P2O5 input 3-24 g/plant, and K2O input 1-36 g/plant, and got higher yield by

6-17 kg/plant.

Key words: rational fertilization, expert system, orange fruit tree, ASP.NET

INTRODUCTION

Although environmental conditions of the cultivation

area, variety, disease, and pest control satisfy the re-

quirement of plant growth, if fertilization is not

appropriate, the goal of a high efficacy plantation can-

not be reached. Orange is a typical tropical and sub-

tropical perennial evergreen fruit tree, that grows the

whole year in suitable conditions, and has no obvious

deep dormancy. Its quantity of fertilizer requirement

has been shown to be more than most deciduous fruit

trees, and has a large number of types and varieties

(Xu 2003). It has been complicated to develop a sys-

tem project to reach a pollution-free plantation target.

Many research works manifested that it was hard to

popularize fertilizer recommendations based on soil test-

ing because of the relative weak annual fruit yield of

oranges, the growth tendency of fruit trees, and the

nutrient content of orange orchard soil (Zhang and Hu

1985; Zhou 1988, 1989, 1994, 2003). In the present

study, it was found that the best way to fulfill pollu-

tion-free fertilization of orange fruit trees was by means

of applying an agricultural expert system to instruct

fertilization, in terms of the majority of condition of

orchards, ability of technical groups, and fertilizer ex-

periences of productive pollution-free orange orchards.

BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE SYSTEM

Pollution-free orange variety and planting soil

quality standards

In terms of national standard specification GB18406.2-

2001, there are two aspects for non-pollution fruit: One

was permissible concentration limits of heavy metals

& harmful substances, the other was the maximum limi-

Received 30 April, 2010 Accepted 8 October, 2010

Correspondence HONG Li-fang, Professor, Ph D, Mobile: 13187836847, Fax: +86-871-5168156, E-mail: [email protected]

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806 LI Yi-shan et al.


tation of pesticide residues. The primary factor rela-

tive to fertilization was the former, index limitation of

heavy metal and pesticide content are shown in Table 1.

proving the quality and quantity of fruit product, but

also protecting and improving the biological environ-

ment of the production area, and restraining agriculture

non-point pollution because of unsuitable fertilization.Protecting and improving biological environment of pro-

ducing area makes sustainable development of pollu-

tion-free orange production.

To achieve this goal, use of experience of expert

primarily must be used, and examination of the system

made in terms of chemical, physical, and biological tests.

Based on the above analyses, many pollution-free fer-

tilization methods and ideas of different orange experts

at all levels were analyzed. From this, the target of key

techniques of implementation of pollution-free fertiliza-tion was decided according to Embleton (1998) as

follows: 1) As to the decision of annual application quan-

tity of N, P, and K fertilizers, the idea of experts was

that the soil condition decided production, production

decided the amount of N needed, which in turn decided

the P and K requirements; 2) based on experience of

experts, the nutrient condition of fruit was diagnosed,

then application of secondary and micronutrient fertil-

izer were recommended; 3) based on local geographi-

cal and climatic conditions, fertilizer proportion and ap-

plication time for different growing periods (flower,

stable fruit, strong fruit, and pick fruit) were formu-

lated from ideas of experts. During the application

period, fertilizer combinations were formulated; 4) an-

nual fertilization program in terms of results of A, B,

and C were formulated, and care had to be taken to

make sure each measure had close relationship with

fertilization and orange growth.

SYSTEM DESIGN

System function

As a integrated system, the system had not only the

function of an expert system, but also data inquiry,

relative theory and nowledge, registration and manage-

ment of user, connection of relative website, and role

of multimedia functions, etc.

Module set and framework of the system

For satisfying requirement of the function of the system,

Table 1 Permissible concentration limit of some heavy metals &

harmful substances in orange fruit and soil

Item Orange fruit (mg kg-1)Soil (mg kg-1)

pH7.5

As 0.5 40 30 25

Hg 0.01 0.3 0.5 1.0

Pb 0.2 250 300 350

Cr 0.5 150 200 250

Cd 0.03 0.3 0.3 0.6

F 0.5

NaNO2 4.0

NaNO3 400

666 0.5 0.5 0.5DDT 0.5 0.5 0.5

Fertilization influence on orange variety and

orchard environment

Chemical fertilizer is an important source of contami-

nation of oranges and the orchard environment. Im-

proper or neglectful application of organic or inorganic

fertilizers pollutes oranges, the orchard and the sur-

rounding area.On the premise of satisfying pollution-free planting

areas, heavy metals, such as As, Hg, Pb, Cr, Cd, and F,

should not exceed national relative standards, besides

these heavy metals almost have no relation with

fertilization. However, nitrite and nitrate have a close

relationship with fertilization (Nakhalla and Hake 1998;

Lenz 2000; Mattos et al. 2003; Menino et al. 2003).

Many researches manifested that excess chemical ni-

trogen fertilizer caused excessive accumulation of ni-

trate in oranges and orchard soils (Obreza and Rouse1993; Alva et al. 1999; Boarctto et al. 1999). The

excessive use of chemical fertilizers or unsuitable pro-

portions of organic and chemical fertilizers causes the

deficiency of soil organic matter and superfluous nutri-

ents entering into the environment by means of run-

off, leaching, denitrification, and erosion causing

contamination of water, soil, and atmosphere (Lea-

Cox et al. 2001; Paramasivam et al. 2001).

Key techniques of pollution-free fertilization

The goal of pollution-free fertilization is not only im-

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tion also had obvious, tactic, and interactional charac-

teristics (Fig. 2).

The process to simulate and formulate fertilization

project of mature tree is as follows:

1) The system makes use of the model to decide

annual sum of application dosage of nitrogen,phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer, in terms of type

of orange fruit tree, age of trees, yield of one plant, and

abundant or deficient level of soil organic matter, based

on geographical position and climate. Secondary and

micronutrient fertilizer decisions were based on results

of experiential diagnosis of nutrition; 2) the system de-

cides the proportion of N, P, and K for different grow-

ing periods (florescence, stable fruit, and strong fruit)in terms of required nutrient characteristics of differ-

ent types of orange trees; 3) the system optimizes the

Fig. 1 System framework.

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combination of fertilizer and source for different grow-

ing periods (florescence, stable fruit, and strong fruit)

based on the principle that organic and slow-efficiency

fertilizer was primary and common and fast-efficiency

fertilizer was secondary, in terms of different growth

phases required nutrient characteristics of different

types of orange trees; 4) the system decided the most

suitable application period and measures of N, P, and K

of florescence, stable fruit, and strong fruit fertilizer in

terms of different growth phases required nutrient char-

acters of different types of orange trees.

The system compiled knowledge, the weave out-re-

pository (pure text file), and protract deduction track,

and provided support for execution of program and

creation of repository in terms of the above process.

Experiential diagnosis of nutritional disturbance

There were some methods for plant nutrient examination,

which included chemical, bio-chemical, physical,

morphological diagnosis, etc. For the definition of the

expert system, diagnosis of nutritional disturbance of

orange trees must make use of computer techniques tosimulate plant nutrition and examine in terms of experi-

ences and abnormal performance. Morphological diag-

nosis was the foundation of experiential diagnosis, be-

cause absence and abundant of the nutrition of the inner

tree counteracts the natural physical activity, and caused

special symptoms on the exterior of the tree (e.g., leaf,

fruit, twig, root, etc.).

On the basis of summarizing many plant nutritional

symptoms and experiences of orange plantation experts,

the deduction model of experiential diagnosis was made

successfully. Similarly, the knowledge was collected

and relative outer repository (pure text files) was com-

piled for providing foundation of programming and ex-

ecuting program and creating the repository in terms

of requirements of the repository creating program. The

expression forms were adopted as follows, in terms of

character of experiential diagnosis.

Expression of knowledge: producing knowledge

regulation.

Resulting deduction: positive deduction.

Background database design

Based on the function requirement of the system, back-

ground database was relatively simple, only needing to

create a database that included eight data tables (Table 3).

PRODUCTION, EXECUTION, AND

DEPLOYMENT OF THE SYSTEM

The system adopted the B/S mode based on ASP.NET.

Fig. 2 The structural diagram of pollution-free fertilizationoperational model of orange species fruit tree.

Table 2 The mathematic formulas of the mode (Zhang and Hu 1985)

Mathematic formula Demonstration

Cl Corrective value of absorbed N dosage of different kinds of oranges, which is a set of constant

Relationship between the absorbed N amount of orange and age of tree & yield of one plant

Ynl=Yn+Cl Annual absorbed N amount of different kinds of oranges (g/plant)

Nature supply amount of soil N element (g/plant)

Usage rate of N fertilizer

Nl=(Ynl-Ynt)/Ln Annual application amount of N fertilizer of different kinds of oranges (g/plant)

Nl:Pl:Kl=1:Cpl:Ckl Fertilization proportion of N, P2O5, K2O of different kinds of oranges

Pl=NlCpl Annual application amount of P2O5 of different kinds of oranges (g/plant)

Kl=NlCkl Annual application amount of K2O of different kinds of oranges (g/plant)

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Development platform and tools

Development platform: Windows XP SP2, IIS V5.0,

and .net framework 1.0.

Development tools: Visual Studio 2003, SQL Server2000, and Flash 8.

Programming

The use of C# language to program repository creation

and database maintained program.

The use of Visual Basic language to program system

running program based on ASP.NET:

1) The programs system in terms of module in the

Visual Studio 2003 IDE, and modify, debug program at

local computer;

2) The integration of overall module and debug, author

modified them in the same programming environment.

Use and make-up of swf files

The system adopted the precept of embedding swf file

into the web page to implement play of depict text,

photography, and video. Through this method, on one

hand it was possible to improve visual ability of the

web page, on the other hand, it proved convenient to

update and maintain the content of web page. swf file

was created by Maromedia Flash 8.

Creation of repository and input of data

Repository creation program was used to put outer re-

pository (pure text files) assumable into pseudo code

repository.

The data stemmed from references and literatures

collected and trimmed and input made by means of

maintaining the program.

Overall test of the system

The program in the local area network and internet was

tested successfully based on the functional requirements

of the system.

The system adopted the B/S mode, the authors had

briefly demonstrated the requirements of hardware and

software.

For server side The web system was commonweal

web site, and had no special requirement of server hard-

ware which could run Windows 2003, IIS 5.0, .net

framework 1.0 and SQL Server software stably.For client side Almost any computer with internet

Explorer 5.0 and an internet connection could visit the

system at address http://yaobiao.com/gjfses

DEMONSTRATION OF THE SYSTEM

Demonstrations were conducted at three villages in

Jianshui County, Yunnan Province, China, from 2008

to 2009. The comparisons between the system rec-

ommendation and practice of farmers are shown in

Table 4. Compared with the practice of farmers, N

application amounts of system recommendation were

decreased by 44-67 g/plant at Majun, 41-238 g/plant at

Miandian, and 58-237 g/plant at Linan, Jianshui County,

Yunnan Province, China. P2O

5application amounts were

decreased by 3 g/plant at Majun, 6-9 g/plant at

Miandian, and 13-24 g/plant at Linan. K2O application

amounts were decreased by 13-36 g/plant at Majun,

1-9 g/plant at Miandian, and 21-26 g/plant at Linan.

However, the yield was increased by 14-17 kg/plant

at Majun, 6-7 kg/plant at Miandian, and 9-16 kg/plant

at Linan.

DISCUSSION

This system, as compared with some related systems

about nutrition of fruit trees, had some advantages.

First, simulation and formulation fertilization projects

of sapling and mature tree in the system were based on

experiences of experts. Using the system to guide fer-

tilization it decreased production cost, guaranteed or-

Table 3 Name and demonstration of data tables

Name Demonstra tion

t_Users User information

t_gjpz Type and variety of orange

t_yjfcf Content of organic fertilizer

t_wj flhtx Phys icochemical charac te ri st ics o f inorgan ic fer til izer

t_yystbx Performance of nutritional disorder

t_yystclff Dealing methods of nutritional disorder

t_tpwjm File name of photography

t_spwjm File name of video

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ange quality, and economical benefit at the same time.

There was no need for special devices or executing

physicochemical and biological tests. According to

feedback of farmers, if the orange orchard followed

the recommendation of system to carry on its manage-

ment in an orderly way, it could bring great benefit to

the farmers. Farmer using the system could save Ninput by 41-238 g/plant, P

2O

5input 3-24 g/plant, and

K2O input 1-36 g/plant, and get higher yield by 6-17

kg/plant. However, most of the related systems about

fruit trees were based on soil and plant nutrient analysis

or fertilization response function (Calot et al. 1994; Kato

1996; Embleton et al. 1998). It was more accurate but

costly.

Secondly, experiential diagnosis of nutrition distur-

bance could meet the requirement of spot diagnosis of

orange orchard. It implemented online deduction, and

intelligence. When the system was executing deduction,

it required information provided by users, because the

fruit farmer and professional worker can provide reli-

able and correct answers with high reliability. Accord-

ing to feedback of users, there was a close relationship

between reliability of data provided by the user and re-

lated extent of deductive result. However, other re-

lated public systems were using offline programs to

diagnose nutrition disturbance for fruit trees. The popu-

larity of these systems is quite limited.

Although the experiential diagnosis of nutrition dis-

turbance could meet the requirement of spot diagnosis

of orange orchards, the time for deductive reasoning

process was a little longer, and the deductive result

was presented only by word description but lacks a

typical image for reference. Some influence factors

for mathematic formula needed to be altered every other

year or when planting situation of orange was changed.

The system needs further work to be more useful andpractical. There is need to simplify the deductive rea-

soning process for users and input some typical im-

ages and timely data in the upgrading system.

Acknowledgements

This work was fund by the Major Science and Tech-

nology Program (2009ZX07102-004), China and the

IPNI (International Plant Nutrition Institute) Program,

Canada (2009ZX07102-004).

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(Managing editor WANG Ning)

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