The alternate power utilization instead of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) in an agricultural tractor (AT) was studied by simulation approach for the drivelines of electric battery (EB), fuel cell (FC) and reformed methanol fuel cell (RMFC). The working hours were considered 4 with comparison of weight, volume, soil pressure, and fuel efficiency. In weight comparison, 12% overweight in FC-AT, 16% overweight in RMFC-AT, and 99% overweight of EB-AT were observed for the rated output power of light duty tractor (17.25 kW). Less than 5% overweight of FC-AT and RMFC-AT, and 39%–62% overweight of EB-AT were observed for rated output power of medium and heavy-duty tractor (33.75–75.00 kW). Soil pressure in the root-growing block was observed less than 130 kPa for EB-AT, FC-AT, RMFC-AT in the rated output power from 17.25–75.00 kW. In all the alternatives, ±5% fluctuations in the volume were observed. In the design stage, we proposed, that FC-AT was the best alternative considering weight, volume, and soil pressure. Furthermore, the analytical software AVL Cruise^® was used for vehicle drive line system to find out how weight affects the performance for 75.00 kW EB-AT. The analysis was designed for 4 working hours with full load at 20 km/h of velocity using AVL Cruise^®. The peak velocity was found less than 14.1 km/h, and constant working time was only 3 hours, because of the severe overweight by EB storage.

In recent years, aerial drones have been increasingly used for field phenotyping of crop research fields: photographs taken at low altitude are combined in an orthomosaic with positional information and stored in GeoTIFF format. Many GeoTIFF files are too large to allow easy display in image viewer software, or to distribute and browse on the Web. To overcome this limitation, we developed a method to distribute high-resolution orthomosaic images on the Web using the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF). By converting GeoTIFF files to map tiles in advance, this method allows the smooth delivery of images according to IIIF specifications. We show the high versatility of this method by using an existing IIIF-compatible image viewer to browse converted images. We also show its high flexibility by implementing an original image viewer using an existing IIIF-compatible library.

We used a virtual catalog-based questionnaire to evaluate the attitude of rice farm managers to an information technology (IT)-based production management service. With the data, we assessed the likelihood of adoption of IT-controlled combine harvesters, paddy field sensors, automatic water supply systems, and fertilizer pouring machine on rice farms, by using cross-tabulation analysis, the Mann–Whitney U-test, and McNemar’s test. More than 60% of farm managers showed an interest in or an intention to test these technologies; this result suggests a strong need among farm managers to improve yields. We identified a difference between farm managers and extension organizations in the desire to identify low-yielding paddies and the need for advice on increasing yields. Extension organizations were more likely to stay at the interest stage without recommending trials to test the merits of reducing the frequency of paddy visits to assess water management. To build a model for the diffusion of IT production management services, it is important for extension organizations to recognize the characteristics of farmer and managers.