Precision agriculture and geospatial techniques for sustainable disease control

Authors: Roberts, Daniel; SHORT, NICHOLAS - Esri; SILL, JAMES - Esri; Lakshman, Dilip; HU, XIAOJIA - Oil Crops Research Institute - China; Buser, Michael

Submitted to: Indian Phytopathology
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/1/2021
Publication Date: 2/20/2021
Citation: Roberts, D.P., Short, N.M., Jr., Sill, J., Lakshman, D.K., Hu, X., Buser, M.D. 2021. Precision agriculture and geospatial techniques for sustainable disease control. Indian Phytopathology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42360-021-00334-2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42360-021-00334-2

Interpretive Summary: The agricultural community is confronted with dual challenges; increasing production of nutritionally dense food and decreasing the impacts of these crop production systems on the land, water, and climate. Control of plant pathogens will figure prominently in meeting these challenges as plant diseases cause significant yield and economic losses to crops responsible for feeding a large portion of the world population. New approaches and technologies to enhance sustainability of crop production systems and, importantly, plant disease control need to be developed and adopted. This chapter provides an overview of the role of advanced geoinformatics techniques, and advances in computing and environmental sensing, in monitoring and management of pesticides and biologicals, such as cover crops and beneficial microbes, to reduce the impact of plant disease control and cropping systems on the environment. Advanced geoinformatics techniques and advances in computing infrastructure also allow a more collaborative framework amongst scientists, policymakers, and the agricultural community to speed the development, transfer, and adoption of these sustainable technologies. This chapter will be of interest to scientists and policymakers working in sustainable agriculture.

Technical Abstract: The agricultural community is confronted with dual challenges; increasing production of nutritionally dense food and decreasing the impacts of these crop production systems on the land, water, and climate. Control of plant pathogens will figure prominently in meeting these challenges as plant diseases cause significant yield and economic losses to crops responsible for feeding a large portion of the world population. New approaches and technologies to enhance sustainability of crop production systems and, importantly, plant disease control, need to be developed and adopted. By leveraging advanced geoinformatics techniques, advances in computing and sensing infrastructure (e.g., cloud-based, big data-driven applications) will aid in the monitoring and management of pesticides and biologicals, such as cover crops and beneficial microbes, to reduce the impact of plant disease control and cropping systems on the environment. This includes geoinformatic decision support tools being developed to aid the farmer in managing cropping system and disease management strategies that are more sustainable but increasingly complex. Geoinformatics and cloud-based, big data-driven applications are also being enlisted to speed crop germplasm improvement; crop germplasm is needed that has enhanced tolerance to pathogens and abiotic stress, and is in tune with different cropping systems and environmental conditions. Finally, advanced geoinformatics techniques and advances in computing infrastructure allow a more collaborative framework amongst scientists, policymakers, and the agricultural community to speed the development, transfer, and adoption of these sustainable technologies.