AI traps offer real-time defence against pest, reviving hopes for Punjab's cotton farmers
A cutting edge technological intervention offering real time surveillance on the pink bollworm (PBW) in the cotton crop may give a new lease of life to the conventional cash crop of Punjab.
Developed by the Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR), AI (artificial intelligence) pheromone traps will be stationed at eight different locations in the cotton growing districts of Bathinda, Mansa and Muktsar for the second consecutive kharif season to audit its efficacy.
Principal entomologist of Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) Vijay Kumar said the digital intervention gives hourly crop updates of the pest via a mobile phone.
Alerted by the moth data, farmers can promptly use insecticides to curb the PBW attack on the cotton crop.
'In the new generation AI trap, a camera is fixed in the pheromone trap that takes regular pictures of the moths that stick to the trap due to the pheromones' lure. These images are then transmitted in real time to a remote server in the cloud and to the farmer,' said Kumar.
The expert said that images of pests are analysed using a machine learning algorithm that has been trained to identify and count PBWs caught in traps.
Kumar, who is monitoring the CICR project in Punjab, said that the technology was introduced last year and its results of two consecutive seasons will be analysed before recommending it for wider use.
Since 2022, the cotton crop acreage in Punjab has witnessed a sharp downfall after PBW infestation.
Experts said that even the genetically modified pest-resistant variety of Bt Cotton (Bollgard II seed) has been falling prey to the pest it was created to resist, farmers are staying away from its cultivation due to economic losses.
Punjab state agriculture department's deputy director (cotton) Charanjeet Singh said that the innovative approach may have the potential to significantly reduce economic losses for farmers grappling with PBW infestations.
'Practice of installing pheromone traps is prevalent in various parts of the cotton-growing region. But it was observed that counting and monitoring pests caught in traps has manpower challenges. But the smart monitoring system enables timely pest management advice to cotton growers, ensuring efficient control and keeping damage below economic threshold levels,' he added.
A progressive farmer from Khiali Chailanwali in Mansa, Jagdev Singh, talks about the effectiveness of the AI trap installed at his one-acre cotton field last year for testing by the authorities.
'Experts say that the AI trap costs ₹35,000 - ₹40,000 and it would be a major challenge in acceptability. But the technology may be supported as the results were highly impressive. An AI-powered pest detection system can alert a farmer to incoming pest infestations in real-time, enabling them to take swift action and effectively save their crop. I witnessed that the system can help a farmer solve the pest problem better than traditional measures often driven by guesswork,' he added.
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