Prescription with Crop Advisor (1989)

• Developed by ICI (in 1989) to advise cereal grain farmers on appropriate fertilisers and pesticides for their farms.
• The choice of chemical, amount, and time of application depends on such factors as crop to be grown, previous cropping, soil condition, acidity of soil, and weather.
• Farmers can access the system via the internet.
• Given relevant data, the system produces various financial return projections for different application rates of different chemicals.
• The system uses statistical reasoning to come to these conclusions.
• If the question asked is outside the system's expertise, it refers the caller to a human expert.
• What about statistics?
• How would it know it was outside it's expertise
• The chief advantages of this system have been
  • that employees at ICI have been relieved of the need to provide lengthy telephone advice sessions,
  • and the quality of the advice has become much more uniform, which has increased confidence in the company's products.
• What other perscription tasks could RBSs be used for?
• Note that my original list of tasks didn't include perscription. Is my list exhaustive? What other things could RBSs be used for?