Building a Spatial Database for Agricultural Record Keeping and Management on a Regenerative Farm

Abstract

Identified by polycultures of plants and animals, regenerative farms are made up of complex interrelated systems and face challenges with data management and record keeping. Despite regenerative farms having more complex record keeping needs than industrial (monoculture) farms, they are not well supported by existing farm management software. A spatial database can be a powerful tool for organizing, accessing, and analyzing farm data. The objectives of this research are to design and create a functional demonstration of a spatial database for agricultural record keeping that is tailored to the needs of regenerative farmers. The initial database design was informed by an extensive literature review of record keeping technologies in agriculture as well as the author’s professional experience working on regenerative farms. The database’s logical schema was finalized after conducting interviews with farmers and leaders of the regenerative movement in Ventura County, CA. Nine interview subjects representing five regenerative agriculture organizations participated in this study. The farms had varying record keeping practices, from memory, to spreadsheets, to Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS). A spatial database was created in PostgreSQL with the PostGIS extension and populated with archival farm data to demonstrate the database’s usefulness to regenerative farmers. The data was combined and visualized through SQL queries that leveraged the relational, temporal, and spatial qualities of the farm data. While this spatial database requires technical proficiency to set up and maintain, it was found to be more effective at handling a farms’ data than their current record keeping systems. Spatial databases are well equipped to handle the data needs of a regenerative farm.