Expert system for shrimp aquaculture – an ICT aided tool for knowledg management

Abstract

Shrimp  aquaculture is a knowledge intensive and high value farming enterprise in the coastal agro-ecosystem. Due to on-farm and off-farm exigencies, aquaculture production practices are constantly getting improved to deal with the emerging scenarios. The extension personnel need to be educated on Better Management Practices (BMP) for shrimp aquaculture in order to enable them to provide appropriate management advices to the aquafarmers. In the present scenario, mechanism for communication and capacity building of extension personnel is poorly organised. In the present study, an Expert System for Shrimp Aquaculture (ESSHA) has been developed to help the extension personnel with information on shrimp farming technology for knowledge management and onward dissemination to the aquafarmers. The system was designed and developed using Microsoft Visual Basic as front-end and Microsoft Access as back-end software. The findings indicated that the knowledge level of the public and private extension personnel was enhanced by 60.02 and 27.72% respectively after using the expert system. ESSHA as a knowledge management tool can be employed by the research and development agencies for capacity building of the extension personnel and other end users including aquafarmers.