Farmers counter pests through tech

P. Samuel Jonathan, GUNTUR ,  NOVEMBER 23, 2017

In what is a considered a game changer for farmers in the State battling crop losses owing to vagaries of pest attack, a mobile app providing farmers free, reliable and quick diagnosis of crop damage has been designed by Indian and German scientists.

Plantix, a pest diagnostic app, is creating a silent revolution among the farm lands in the State. The mobile app can be downloaded on smartphones and is helping the farmers to identify pests and suggest remedies. The simplified dashboard with easy-to-use features works with GPS coordinates.

Farmers can take pictures of the affected crop and upload them on the app. The photographs are then analysed using artificial intelligence algorithms. The results are then returned immediately to the user. Critical information on symptoms, triggers, chemicals as well as biological treatments are provided. All pictures sent using the app, are geo-tagged thereby enabling real-time monitoring of pest and diseases.

The resulting metadata provides valuable insights into the spatial distribution of cultivated crops and most significant plant diseases in the form of high resolution maps.

“Farmers have been using conventional methods to assess pest damage. But now, they are using this technology. The response in tremendous. We now a data base of half a million pictures covering 30 crops worldwide and offers remedies for over 120 crop diseases,” said Director of Extension, ANGRAU, K. Raja Reddy.

The mobile app also offers information about preventive measures, which helps to avoid plant damage.

The app has features such as automated disease detection, digital library of plant diseases and treatments, monitoring tools for mapping of the spatial distribution of cultivated plants and their damages.

The app encompasses a weather information system specific to the farmers’ location. It facilitates interaction with other actors interested in plant protection services.

Reference

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