Agroinformatics allows us to cope with the information deluge in the agriculture sector in increasingly efficient and effective ways. Agroinformatics is basically a multidisciplinary subject which covers a wide spectrum of Agricultural issues and it generally draws the concepts and methods of Computer Science. It brings the application in agriculture with innovative ideas, techniques and scientific knowledge to expand the horizons of the Computer Science. The book contains the details about the information technology applied to management and analysis of agricultural data. The book covers the diverse areas ranging from artificial intelligence, artificial neural networks, decision support system, expert system, geographic information system, information system related to agriculture, genetic algorithm, programming language with backend tool to develop softwares. The book contains fifteen chapters that highlight and discuss the various dimensions of Agroinformatics.   It is hoped that the book will provide the basic and fundamental knowledge of understanding the concepts of Bioinformatics. This book is prepared, taking into consideration the changing needs of the undergraduate curricula of various universities involved in offering courses on Agroinformatics. The book will also be a guide for the researchers. The book would also provide the required computer knowledge to the students of State Agricultural Universities and other ICAR Institutions to sharpen their understanding of Agroinformatics.

• What is Agroinformatics? • Agroinformatics • Definitions  • Objectives of Agroinformatics • Information Systems Terminology • Agroinformatics Tools

• Agriculture Information Systems • Major Trends • Agriculture Information System • Importance • Internet Based Agriculture Information System • Support Provided by Agriculture Information System • AGRIS/CARIS • AGROVOC • Agriculture Research Information System (ARIS) • Agriculture Research Information Center

• Introduction • The Concept of a Farm Management System

• Introduction • Characteristics of Management Information System • Management Information Systems Advantage • Outputs of a Management Information System

• Defining GIS • Fundamentals of GIS • Mapping Concepts, Features and Properties • Geographical Data Sets • Spatial & Non-spatial Data • Attribute Data • Remote Sensing in Agriculture • Remote Sensing in Farm • Principles of Remote Sensing • How Does Remote Sensing Work? • Global Positioning System • Components of a GPS • GPS Positioning Types • GPS Applications • Remote Sensing and GIS • Use of GPS in Agriculture • General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Network  • The GPRS Network • Benefits

• What is Intelligence? • What is Artificial Intelligence? • Branches of AI • Natural–Language • Natural Language Processing  • Natural Language Recognition • Simple Natural Language Grammar • Intelligent Technologies in Agriculture • Intelligent Animal Houses • Agricultural Robots

• What is a Neural Network? • How does an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) work? • Characteristics of Neural Networks  • Architectures of Artificial Neural Networks • Learning Process • Classification of Learning Algorithms • Artificial Neural Networks in Agriculture -Intelligent Agent  • Classes of Intelligent Agents • Characteristic of Intelligent Agents

• What is Meant by the Term Expert? • Building Blocks of Expert Systems • Designing Expert Systems in Problem Solving  • Applications of Expert System • An Expert System for Decision Problem • Advantages of Expert System • Cases of Expert Systems in Agriculture

• Introduction • Types of DSS • Scope of DSS • Benefits of DSS  • Common Uses of Decision Support Systems • Decision Support System for Farm Management

• Introduction • Features of Genetic Algorithm  • Steps in Executing the Genetic Algorithm • Applications of Genetic Algorithm • Artificial Ant Problem

• A Brief Description of Visual Basic • Types of Application in VB • Creating the Project • Steps in Building a Visual Basic Application • Visual Basic Data Types • Managing Variables  • Constants • String Functions • Operators in Visual Basic  • Controlling Program Flow • Looping • The InputBox( ) Function • Methods • Procedur • Control Array • Msgboxes • Data Access • Data Access Objects (DAO) • Microsoft Jet Database Engine  • Remote Data Objects • Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects • Data Control • Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)

• Database • Data Model • Database Software • DBMS Facility  • Architecture for a DBMS • Data Modeling • Components of a Data Mode • RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) • Client/Server Model of Computing • Entity Relationship Diagram (E-R diagram) • Entity Relationship Diagram Notations - Front-end and Back-end • Codd’s Rules • SQL - Structured Query Language • Data Definition Language (DDL) • Data Manipulation Language (DML) • DCL • Data Control Language • Transaction Control (TCL)

• Agriculture Database Concepts and Importance • The Orientation of Topic Selection for the Construction of the Agricultural Database • The Principle of Specialization in the Construction of the Agricultural Database • Top Quality Principle of Building Databases • Agriculture Database Types • Agriculture Libraries • Agriculture Journals • Technical Reports • Conference Papers • E-Books in Agriculture

• Web Portal • Types of Portals

• Definition of Bioinformatics • History of Bioinformatics  • Structural Bioinformatics • New Branch of Bioinformatics  • Bioinformatics - Application in Agriculture • Analyzing Protein Sequence • Pairwise Alignment • Multiple Alignment • Blast - A Sequence Alignment Tool • EMBL • SWISS–PROT • Rice Genome Project • Software for Bio-informatics • Major Categories of Bioinformatics Software • Internet Sites For Bioinformatics