Hierarchy model in Azure Data Manager for Agriculture
Note
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To generate actionable insights, data related to growers, farms, and fields should be organized in a well-defined way. Firms that operate in the agriculture industry often perform longitudinal studies and need high-quality data to generate insights. Azure Data Manager for Agriculture organizes agronomic data in the following hierarchy.
Farm hierarchy
Party
A party is the owner and custodian of any data related to a farm. You can think of a party as the legal entity that runs the business.
The customer who sets up Azure Data Manager for Agriculture defines the party entity.
Farm
Farms are logical entities. A farm is a collection of fields.
Farms don't have any geometry associated with them. A farm entity helps you organize your growing operations. For example, Contoso Ltd. is the party that has farms in Oregon and Idaho.
Field
Fields denote a stable geometry that's generally agnostic to seasons and other temporal constructs. For example, a field could be the geometry denoted in government records.
Fields are multipolygons. For example, a road might divide the farm into two or more parts.
Seasonal field
A seasonal field is the most important construct in the farming world. A seasonal field's definition includes:
- Geometry
- Season
- Crop
A seasonal field is:
- Associated with a field or a farm.
- A monocrop entity in Azure Data Manager for Agriculture. If farmers cultivate multiple crops simultaneously, they have to create one seasonal field per crop.
- Associated with one season. If farmers cultivate across multiple seasons, they have to create one seasonal field per season.
- A multipolygon. The same crop can be planted in various areas within the farm.
Season
The season represents the temporal aspect of farming. It's a function of local agronomic practices, procedures, and weather.
Crop
A crop entity provides the phenotypic details of the planted crop.
Crop product
A crop product is the commercial variety (brand and product) of the planted seeds. A seasonal field can contain information about varieties of seeds planted in the same crop.