AFOPro: a nutrient management decision support system for the United States

AFOPro, is a response to the need to track nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in livestock manure generated by the confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) as well as in commercial fertilizer, and applied as nutrient sources in agricultural fields in the United States. This system may be used by planners that include consultants, state agency personnel, extension specialists, and producers/owners to make allocation decisions optimum for an agricultural field to meet the crop needs, while minimizing the possible impacts on the watersheds. AFOPro has four basic modules: (1) AFOPro Core, a nutrient management decision module; (2) AFOPro Web, a web module for updating the knowledge base; (3) A-FOPro Spatial, a spatial module interfacing with a geographic information system to generate spatial information regarding agricultural fields; and (4) AFOPro PI Calculator, a module for calculating state-specific phosphorus indices (PI) for agricultural fields. AFOPro is flexible, transparent, interactive, and supports 16 states of the United States as of July 2003. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.