Taking Sustainable Crop Protection From the Field to the Cloud

Targeted resource management could make us more effective in our crop protection strategies if we knew where and when yield-limiting factors occurred. We do know that rice yields and yield gaps vary over space through time, which would suggest that interventions must be geographically and seasonally specific to close them. With the use of information and communications technology and cloud computing, IRRI works and collaborates with the Philippine Rice Research Institute and other Philippine partners to develop the Philippine Rice Information SysteM (PRISM), which allows real-time collection and dissemination of information on pest injuries and yield. Surveys are conducted in Philippine farmers’ fields, which are representative of the country’s major rice- producing areas. A modified version of IRRI’s “A survey portfolio to characterize yield-reducing factors in rice” provides a unified, systematic approach in collecting data on production situations, including farmers’ cropping practices; injuries caused by diseases, animal pests, and weeds; and yield. To streamline the process, smartphones are used in recording and transmitting data to a cloud-hosted database, which allows real-time monitoring and interaction between observers and end users. End users may access a password-protected website and view maps of aggregated data showing the intensity of pest injuries, farmers’ practices, and yield. They could also generate reports of survey data from the municipal to the national level. As pest injuries and outbreaks are reported, government officials can be sure that interventions are specific for a location and situation, thus, they can act more quickly. Platforms like this are just the first step in leveraging new technologies that can help us devise new strategies for effective, targeted crop protection.