Internet GIS Assists Crop Input Permitting

Restrictions controlling the application of certain chemical inputs, such as fertilizers or pesticides, imposed on farmers will increase as environmental concerns figure more heavily in agricultural management. Increased legislation inevitably leads to more cost for both farmer and regulatory bodies. By taking advantage of a permitting process available across the Internet, the farmer can reduce the time needed to make field-based permit applications and free up time for other tasks.

The Agricultural Commissioner can streamline and reduce departmental transaction costs associated with permitting by utilizing a GIS and the Internet. Using ESRI's ArcGIS Server, farmers seeking permission to apply chemicals to individual fields can do so by using a custom-built, interactive mapping tool that is located on the Commissioner's Internet home page. Once an application for a permit has been received and reviewed, the Commissioner can utilize the same Internet Web page to inform the farmer of the outcome of his or her application graphically on a field-by-field basis.

The amount of information that needs to be handled at a county or state level would justify the use of ArcGIS Server. Benefits would be twofold: the volume of spatial data transactions generated could be easily accommodated while the update of the spatial database would occur simultaneously with the digital application of the farmer, eliminating any chance of data entry duplication.