Abstract

GIS based Cover Crop Data Capture Tool
Track: Agriculture
Authors: Vijay Ramalingam, Mustafa Altinakar

The GIS based Cover Crop Data Capture Tool allows users to track fields where winter cover crops are used as a Best Management Practice (BMP). This tool is targeted for federal and state entities that provide incentives to farmers for their cover crop management. Using remote sensing images of cover crop, common land unit, and watershed boundary files, the user can demark boundaries of different types of cover crop for a specific farmer, assign targeted watershed based on the location of the farm, perform detailed calculation of incentives based on the planting and killing methods, and finally produce a detailed summary for each farmer. The tool was developed for ArcGIS desktop using ArcObjects and VBA. It is being used by USDA Maryland since 2010, and has allowed them to completely eliminate paper based approach. The results from this tool are also used to estimate nutrient uptake by cover crops.