Agricultural Agent of the Future

David W. Dik, assistant director, Cooperative Extension Service, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and Charlotte B. Travieso, supervisory computer systems analyst, Extension Service.

Could a computer replace your county agent?" The Farm Computer News (October, 1985) asks.

"Computers area tool, a good one, of the county agent's trade" says Vivan Jennings, Extension Deputy Administrator for Agricultural Programs. "We're going to need good minds in people to interpret data and to provide additional analysis of information transmitted by computers," adds Kenneth Bolen, Director of Extension at Colorado State University.

Following is a future scenario, a look at the Agricultural Extension agent's office of the future:

It is 8:30 a.m. on Monday, May 10, 1990. Extension Agent Terry arrives at the office. Terry remembers how the office looked when it was filled with the cabinets and piles of paperwork. Now there is room for a conference table, some chairs, teleconferencing phone setup, and, of course, the office computer, its communications equipment, and a large screen television. The worktable is neater than the old desk used to be. Terry rarely uses a typewriter. The telephone and associated electronic media are used to communicate with clientele.

Portable Computers, Electronic Mail, Stored Voice Messages. The first thing Terry does is to connect a portable microcomputer to the county computer and retrieve the voice and text electronic messages which were received overnight. Since the telephone company converted to digitized voice signals, the office computer now stores voice' messages.

Terry uses the office computer to check the day's appointment calendar and scan voice messages. Harold has a question on planting seed varieties whose germination will not be inhibited by the herbicide applied last spring. Because the voice message is digitized and stored in the office computer's memory, Terry is able to readdress the voice message to the university subject matter specialist along with a priority request for a quick response. Terry adds a note describing the land area and supplying the chronological data that the specialist needs to answer Harold's question accurately.

National Computer Network.

Terry also sets an acknowledgment- requested clock which will return a notice if the specialist has not retrieved the message within a specified time. If the specialist at the land-grant school is unavailable or cannot answer the question quickly, the problem can be forwarded, via the national Extension network, to other scientists and specialists who are knowledgeable about herbicide use.

Terry is impressed with the capability of the technology and communications equipment in the county office. It can forward a farmer's question instantaneously to people with experience and expertise in all the U.S. land-grant schools. Some questions raised by clientele also are answered by researchers working with private companies, since the network extends beyond the public sector to researchers at private corporations.

After handling the overnight voice messages left by clientele, Terry checks the electronic text messages. Terry types responses to some and adds voice annotation to others. Terry addresses the responses, including spoken comments, to the appropriate clients. Next, Terry teleconferences with agents in six other counties to discuss a report due at the state office at the end of the week. The other agents agree that Terry will summarize their suggestions and send them, by voice message, to the committee chair. The chair will listen to the suggestions and decide how to incorporate them.

Teleconferencing. Terry and the other agents like being directly involved in the decisionmaking process for the report. They are confident the committee chair will forward their ideas, along with the full text of the report, to the state specialist, who will be able to complete this report in a few days. Previously, reports were exchanged through the mail to be revised and retyped before being submitted for final approval. This process took 2 to 3 weeks instead of 2 to 3 days using this technology.

Terry next checks the day's current and forecasted weather maps. They were sent from the land-grant school the previous night and were stored in the county computer. Terry downloads the weather information to a portable computer that can be carried throughout the county.

Expert Systems. Terry notices that the county computer is busy Polling the remote weather stations in this area of the State. The computer automatically collects, stores, and forwards the data to the university computer. Weather research information is continually updated and transmitted to the main computer, to be used by the climatologist to update forecasting models for local weather. This Practical agricultural application is one result of research in artificial intelligence and expert systems.

A freeze alert is forecast for certain areas of the county the next morning from 2 to 5 a.m. Terry selects from the county computer a list of fruit growers in the area of the freeze alert, along with their phone numbers. Then Terry dictates a warning message and instructs the computer to call each grower and deliver the message. The computer dials each number, waits for an acknowledgement code, and repeats the message alerting each grower to monitor for freezing conditions tomorrow morning. The county fruit growers subscribe to the service. Extension pioneered this service, which combines research improvements in weather forecasting with timely information delivery to county fruit growers.

Mobile Phones. Terry drives to a master food preserver volunteer training site. The trip takes about twenty minutes. During the drive, Terry uses the portable car phone to call the four county Food and Nutrition aides to discuss their game plans for the day. Conference call capability makes it possible for all of them to be on the line simultaneously. At the farmers' market, Terry coordinates the master food preserver volunteer trainers and leaves the special software that was developed to help the volunteers analyze the nutritional value and cost effectiveness of home processed foods.

On the road again, Terry uses the portable car phone to call clients who have left messages on the office computer. The first reply is quick: "Yes, the 4-H meeting is Tuesday, and thanks again for your volunteer support." The second is to a more complicated question from a farmer who has an insect outbreak. Terry pushes a button to capture this message and indexes it so it can be passed to the electronic mail system for later reference.

In-Field Problem Solving. The third call is an appointment confirmation to visit a farm to see a newly seeded alfalfa field. The farmer wants to know why the seed failed to germinate. Terry arrives and finds the farmer's problem is unexpectedly complex. Using the portable computer and the mobile radio-phone, Terry accesses the university's computer, retrieves valuable alfalfa seed data, and immediately shares the data with the farmer.

The university also provides a decision-aid program to help the farmer decide whether to participate in a government program to reduce the production of soybeans in the region. After seeing the financial figures, the farmer chooses the program. Terry then transmits the farmer's name, address, and decision to the university.

This information will be used later when the specialist sends a questionnaire to the farmer. Was the recommendation provided by the Extension Service beneficial? What benefits were received? What economic impact did the decision have on the farmer's business? Data collected by this method will go into a research data base for agricultural economists to use in tracking historical impacts of government policies and programs on farm income.

Interactive Videodisc. At 1:00 p.m. Terry drives back to the office. At 1:30 p.m. the 4-H crop and livestock judging teams come into the office to practice livestock and crop judging for the state contests in July. Terry instructs the 4-H members on the use of two new computer-controlled videodisc players. To acquire judging skills, the members use judging lessons prepared by Terry and the livestock specialist. The videodisc lessons save time because farmers no longer have to host the livestock judging teams for practice on their farms. Terry no longer has to transport the teams from farm to farm to make sure that they get the experience needed for state competition.

The computer-controlled videodisc players are programmed so an individual can view three or four classes of animals, select a placement of those animals, and key the selection into the computer for each class. If the judging candidate has made the right selections, the computer plays back segments of the videodisc with instructions on the quality points of one animal over the other. If the candidate has made the wrong choices, the computer points out the animal's quality characteristics that may have been overlooked. This program also displays the production records for each of the animals so that style and quality points can be related to actual production capacity of the animal. The learning experience is valuable for these future members of the agricultural production segment of society.

Terry checks the list of people who have stopped at the office technology center to use the programmable videodisc players to find information and to solve problems. Many questions relate to personal finance and financial management alternatives. Terry forwards to the family living specialist at, the university a message indicating increased use of programs on family resource and financial planning.

It is now 3:30 p.m. Terry puts a message on the dial-access system and in the computer mail system to announce the countywide farm field days scheduled for the next month. The message is automatically sent to' the commercial videotext companies that supply information, market, and banking services to farmers in the county. Using commercial videotext companies and the county computer makes it easy for Extension to info clientele about upcoming events in the county and target information to people who might be interested.

Terry finishes the workday by reviewing the secretary's progress and by looking at appointments and projects for tomorrow. Terry then accesses the national Extension plan-of-work data base to see if other States are working in priority areas similar to those in Terry's county.

While closing up the office, Terry notices the wore behind the door. Smiling, Terry thinks, "I used to take that thing home loaded with papers many a night. All I need now is my computer at home and here at the office. I'm able to perform at a professional level with new tools and feel proud to be a part of the Extension system."