Web-Based system for study of pest dynamics in relation to climate change Singh Niranjan*, Vennila S., Ahuja D. B. ICAR-National Centre for Integrated Pest Management, LBS Building, IARI Campus, New Delhi, 110012 *Email: Attri.ns@gmail.com
Online published on 27 July, 2018. Abstract A web based system for study of Real Time Pest Dynamics (RTPD) was developed and implemented under National Initiative in Climate Resilient Agriculture to assess the field level impact of climate change on pest dynamics of four major crops viz., rice, pigeon pea, groundnut and tomato. Understanding pest dynamics vis-a-vis climate change is essential for prediction of pest severity. Predictions lead to pest forewarning that provides lead time for managing impending pest attacks, minimizes crop loss, and optimizes pest control leading to reduced cost of cultivation and better environmental safeguards. The current efforts mainly focus on pest data capture, reporting, analysis and its relation with weather data. The system consists of three major components viz. a database, an offline peat data capture application and online pest-weather reporting and analysis application. Pest and other relevant information obtained through regular monitoring of experimental and farmer's fields by Real Time Pest Surveillance (RTPS) locations established across the major agro ecological regions growing the target crops and daily weather data for these locations is captured on weekly basis by an offline application deployed at computers of RTPS locations which is transferred to central database. Subsequently, experts from research institutes view this information in various formats through online reporting and analysis application to compare pest scenarios, to study pest weather interactions as well as for generation of pest forewarning models. Top Keywords Pest surveillance, real time, dynamics, climate change, weather, pest-weather interaction, data capture, mapping, reporting, analysis, forewarning. Top |