Sugarcane Research Experiment Management System (SREMS) : SRDC final report

Abstract

SRDC-funded physiological and agronomic experiments have been conducted by many researchers from various research institutes over the past decades. The resulting datasets are typically stored in idiosyncratic formats in a range of spreadsheet software packages. The data are, in most cases, unobtainable to other researchers and stakeholders resulting in potential repetition of experiments. In response the CRC for Sustainable Sugar Production (Sugar CRC) developed the “Sugarbag” database. Sugarbag contained data from 138 experiments stored in Microsoft Excel and Access format. Utilisation of this database has resulted in value-adding to knowledge beyond the life and expense of the initial projects, particularly in the areas of sugarcane physiology and APSIM model development. In 2002 Sugarbag ceased to be maintained and is consequently out of date and under utilised. Since the cessation of Sugarbag, more recently generated datasets have generally remained in the hands of the project Principle Investigators and failed to be available for further value-adding. This project sought to address the issue by developing an updated database facility that was accessible via the web. The database was referred to as the Sugarcane Research Experiment Management System (SREMS).