Facilitating the reuse of standardized farming practices documentation modules across different crops and regions is a valuable capability of DITA. This approach allows agricultural organizations to efficiently share and adapt content while maintaining consistency and compliance with industry standards.

Topic-Based Authoring

DITA encourages topic-based authoring, which breaks content into modular topics or units. In the context of farming practices documentation, each topic can focus on a specific aspect, such as irrigation techniques, pest control, or soil management. These topics are self-contained and can be reused across different documents and regions. For instance, a well-documented irrigation technique can be reused in manuals for various crops without the need to recreate the content from scratch.

Conditional Processing

Conditional processing in DITA allows content creators to tailor documentation for different crops and regions while using the same source material. By applying conditional attributes, specific content can be included or excluded based on criteria like crop type or geographic region. This ensures that farmers receive documentation that is relevant to their specific needs. For example, guidance on planting schedules for wheat can be conditionally included in documentation intended for regions where wheat is a common crop.

Example:

Here’s an example of how DITA enables the reuse and conditional processing of farming practices documentation:

<topic id="irrigation-technique">
  <title>Irrigation Technique</title>
  <content>...
</topic>

<topic id="pest-control">
  <title>Pest Control</title>
  <content>...
</topic>

<map>
  <topicref href="irrigation-technique.dita"/>
  <topicref href="pest-control.dita"/>
  <topicref href="wheat-planting-schedule.dita" audience="wheat-growers"/>
  <topicref href="corn-planting-schedule.dita" audience="corn-growers"/>
</map>

In this example, two farming practices topics (irrigation technique and pest control) are authored as reusable modules. These modules are then referenced in a map that includes conditional processing based on the audience attribute, allowing for the inclusion of crop-specific content when needed.