INFORMATICS PROMOTION SCHEME FOR THE AGRICULTURAL MARKET SECTOR

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has elaborated INSP for the agricultural sector to encourage informatics research, informatics development and informatics use in research, education, extension and the market sector. This paper is restricted to the way in which INSP has been realized in the market sector.

The objective of INSP fot the market sector is twofold:

1. promotion of the development and introduction of related automation products and services on the primary agricultural holding;
2. well-balanced development, regarding organization, techniques and contents, of information supply between the primary agricultural holding and trade, the service sector and industry, in order to maintain or strengthen the competitive position of the agricultural sector. A derived objective is the establishment of multiform software houses for the agricultural sector.

On agricultural holdings the process of automation has gained a firm foothold, but little has been done so far in the areas of farm management automation and information supply. Trade, the service sector and industry have already been automated for the major part.

INSP for the market sector focuses on the primary holding and the co-ordination and objectivity of information supply on the holding. This has been done to prevent the primary sector from becoming dependent on trends in trade, the service sector and industry, without having the power to influence these trends. This might result in a fragmented market, lacking the integration of various subsystems.

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