ORCHARD-2000 - A DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR NEW-ZEALANDS ORCHARD INDUSTRIES

To compete in world markets, New Zealand's horticultural industries mu st meet increasingly stringent quality standards and market preference s, and continue to offer new and innovative products. Their ability to do this depends on the continual transfer of new orchard management t echnologies from discipline-based research programmes. ''Orchard 2000' ' is a computerised decision support system designed to provide a stan dard framework for the encapsulation of horticultural science into dec ision support ''tools'' for orchardists. These decision support tools provide information which helps decision makers with specific manageme nt decisions. The framework incorporates an orchard database which sto res details of orchard layout, weather, production, operation, and fin ances. The decision support tools share this database rather than havi ng their own files, so data are stored in an easily accessible and non -redundant form. These tools also have a consistent graphical user int erface, reducing the learning time for new tools. Prototype decision s upport tools for orchardists have been tested by trial groups of apple and kiwifruit growers, consultants, and agribusiness. The prototyping approach for tool development implies continued iterative refinement. An ''open'' software standard has been adopted to encourage third par ty development of decision support tools.