An Expert Advisory System for Wheat Disease Management. Ramon M. Cu and Roland F. Line, USDA-ARS, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-6430. Plant Dis. 78:209-215. Accepted for publication 15 October 1993. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1994.

An expert system for managing diseases of wheat that is both predictive and managerial has been developed for use in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States and is referred to by the acronym MoreCrop (Managerial Options for Reasonable Economical Control of Rusts and Other Pathogens). The acronym MoreCrop was selected because it describes the concept of how the system should be used. The purpose of MoreCrop is to present outcomes that may happen and give options for control, not to make specific recommendations. The user evaluates the information that is provided when certain environmental conditions and managerial practices are selected and, by a process of reasoning, determines the most economical control. MoreCrop was developed using the vast information available on wheat diseases together with tools from recent tech- nological advances in the computer in- dustry. Visual programming and object-oriented programming approaches made the system visually appealing, easy to use, flexible, extendable, and powerful.