e-Pest Surveillance: Large Scale Crop Pest Surveillance and Control

Abstract

Given the changing climatic conditions, and unreliable and erratic raining patterns that require adoption of new types of crops and new farming skills, farmers are mostly in desperate need of information on modern farming methods and practices that can increase the yields of their farms. In meeting this need and to improve agricultural productivity, mobile-based phone technology can be leveraged to provide farmers with timely, relevant and accurate agricultural information ranging from farm preparation to pre-harvest and post harvest crop and farm produce management. In this regard, this paper proposes a farmer centric e-pest surveillance solution framework, a digital platform that uses mobile devices, image processing and crowdsourcing to assist smallholder farmers to effectively identify and control crop pest invasion, and to connect them with local agro-vet stores and extension service providers.