BEIA brings a new life to the AgroExpert system
Most of the AgroExpert system was installed during the year 2008 in order to provide county phytosanitary agencies in Romania with automatically collected and processed agro-meteorological data. Collection of primary meteorological data was and still is performed with Adcon Telemetry A733 UHF Remote Telemetry Units (RTUs) equipped with air humidity & temperature sensors, leaf wetness sensors, rain gauges and other sensors. Primary data collected by the RTUs on a certain area arrive through UHF radio to an Adcon A840 gateway which is directly and solely connected to a local data processing PC.
The above-described AgroExpert structure and organization proved itself as far from being a successful one. Data processing and efficient use of results in over 70 data collection and processing centers have been affected from the outset by the lack and instability of qualified local personnel. System functioning and maintenance information have also remained merely a secret at the level of the 70 chronically undermanned centers. Agroexpert system was in such conditions less and less utilized during last years and subject of severe involution and degradation.
Faced with such a situation, the National Phytosanitary Authority (Autoritatea Națională Fitosanitară = ANF) has during summer 2017 decided to start rehabilitation of the AgroExpert system with BEIA, the only certified distributor in Romania of Adcon Telemetry equipment and software.
The new approach that BEIA has introduced in the AgroExpert architecture mainly consists in the fact that all A840 gateways are sending their data through the internet to the BEIA server. Data are here processed by the modern addVANTAGE Pro 6.5 server software, instead of the old Pro 3.35, left unchanged since 2008 in the above-mentioned old-type processing centers. And, most important, processed data of utmost importance for plant protection and for other such aims are put by the BEIA server on the Internet. Where said data are available, anywhere and anytime, to any user able to access the Internet and to authenticate him or herself with username and password.
BEIA teams performing on-site gateway re-orientation are also visiting all data collection RTU stations and replacing faulty parts, leaf wetness sensors most of them. Keeping everything in good functioning condition will be from now on a much simpler task, as everything is visible in the data that the BEIA server makes anywhere and to anybody available on the Internet.
AgroExpert data collection stations
At the time of writing (October 2017), AgroExpert networks in 6 counties are already functioning in this new efficient way promoted by BEIA, while others are expected to follow soon.