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Annual Report of Progress
to the
MISSISSIPPI SOYBEAN PROMOTION BOARD
for 1998

 

Project Title: Deltasoy - An Internet Based Soybean Database System as an Assistant Tool to Soybean Growers and Researchers in Mississippi
Project Leader: Lingxiao Zhang, Assistant Agronomist, Delta Res. and Ext. Center, MSU, Stoneville
Other Participants: Wanwen Qi, graduate student, Computer Science Department, MSU, Starkville
Frank D. Whisler, Associate Professor, Plant and Soil Science Department, MSU, Starkville

Objectives & Significant Accomplishments

Objectives
  1. To create a database to help soybean growers in their selections of soybean varieties and to use research results more efficiently.
  2. To help summarize past research results and identify new problem areas for experimentation.
  3. To make the database available from the Internet
  4. To link soybean research results with other ongoing research.


Activities from August 1998 to present (January 1999)

  1. Personnel search: Starting in April 1998, the preparation work for the project was underway. The first thing we have done was to find a graduate student to work on this project. After three month of work, we have hired a graduate student, Ms. Wanwen Qi, from the Computer Science Department at Mississippi State University. Her previous background is in computer science with the emphasis on database. We found that she is technically very capable of taking this project.
  2. Purchase equipment: A computer PII-333 and some related equipment have been bought for the project, and they are located at Room 428, Dorman Hall on campus.
  3. Obtaining Account from MSU: To establish a web server, we need to obtain a stable IP address instead of a random one. We have spent quite long time to contact the related department and personnel in the university, and finally received the IP number. The number has been established as 130.18.201.31.
  4. Obtaining varieties trial data: We have downloaded data for 1994-1997 Mississippi State Soybean Variety Trial on the Web Page. The work of importing data is in progress. Data of Mississippi State Variety Trial 1997 has been imported into the database. The work of importing data from previous years and 1998 is underway. The new 1998 data were obtained from Ms. Jimmie Cooper at the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences.

 
Accomplishment of Individual Objectives 

Objective 1. To create a database to help soybean growers in their selections of soybean varieties and to use research results more efficiently.

Based on the data of variety trial (94-98), we have built a database using Microsoft Access that includes the following parameters: variety, maturity groups, irrigation system, location, soil, planting date, planting system, yield. Furthermore, we also associate a particular variety with its resistant or sensitive diseases and other useful information. By using this database, soybean growers could easily find the information needed from a large set of data tables. The database could also give advanced information rather than just searching results. For example, users can do some statistical calculations, or verify those productive varieties under certain specific circumstances, and so on. Therefore, soybean growers can use research results (State Variety Trial information) more efficiently instead of doing these calculations and comparison by themselves from those flat tables. An example of the database tables is attached in Appendix A.

 

Objective 2. To help summarize past soybean research results and identify new problem areas for experimentation.

Through this database, we can summarize much useful information that was not clear if we only have a bunch of data and flat tables. By summarizing several years' results, we may see some trend that we couldn't see by only looking at the flat tables. The Variety Trial Book summarized the average yield information for two to three year at the most, due to the limited publishing space. The database can do five, ten or more year-average summary if the data is available.

 

Objective 3. To make the database available from the Internet.

The Internet has been used more and more in agriculture as one of the most important information resources. To make the database available to growers and researchers from the Internet was our original mission. The work is ongoing. The procedures for building the Web Pages and creating Internet access are described as follows.

By using CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and HTML, we give users an easy-user interface and receive request from users. This is called a client. When the server, that is written in C++, receives the request, it analyses it and submits the corresponding SQL query to our database, which is built by Microsoft Access. Then Access processes the SQL query, and returns the query result to the server. At last, the server packages the results to the client, so the user can see the results on their web browser. The Appendix B shows a demo interface and Appendix C gives an example of search result.

 

Objective 4. To link soybean research results with other ongoing research.

This objective is expected to be accomplished after the project has been finished.


Publications

An abstract has been prepared and submitted to the World Soybean Research Conference VI at Chicago, USA. Aug. 1999.

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Soybeans in Mississippi
Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station 
Mississippi State University Extension Service
 Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine

 
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