IPB University Introduces the Use of Cellular Technology for Monitoring Plant Pests and Diseases
Integrated control of plant pests and diseases is one of the efforts to maintain crop productivity. These efforts are also in line with the fulfilment of the food needs of the Indonesian people.
Along with the increasingly sophisticated era, integrated pest and disease control methods can be carried out by utilising mobile technology for monitoring activities.
For this reason, the Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, IPB University and students of the Entomology Study Program (Prodi) conducted socialisation and technical implementation activities in the use of cellular technology for monitoring plant pests and diseases. The socialisation was conducted in Kiarasari Village, Compreng District, Subang Regency, West Java (7/12).
The activity was attended by representatives from service unit officers, members of the Plant Pest Control Officer (POPT) as well as members of the Agricultural Extension Centre (BPP) and agricultural extension officers in Subang Regency.
Socialisation on the use of mobile technology-based plant pest and disease monitoring applications was delivered by Dr Ali Nurmansyah, Chairman of the Department of Plant Protection and Dr Akhmad Arifin Hadi, Chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture.
“Many devices and applications can be used as a medium for monitoring plant pests and diseases. This is a combination that has developed further to detect real damage to plants due to different opt,” said Dr Ali Nurmansyah.
He pointed out that the technology that can be used is the combination of mobile phones with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Although this has not been done much in the world of plant disease control.
“It is important to know the presence of pests and plant diseases as early as possible. This makes the use of mobile technology an advantage when applied directly in agriculture,” he said.
According to Dr Akhmad Arifin Hadi, the combined use of mobile-based technology can facilitate the process of mapping areas affected by certain pests and diseases. Thus, analyses can be conducted to anticipate further attacks.
“The data obtained from the mapping can be used to build an integrated and sustainable control system,” said Dr Akhmad Arifin Hadi, Chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture at IPB University.
Through this socialisation and training, it is hoped that the use of a combination of mobile devices with several technology-based equipment and applications can be adopted and applied directly in monitoring the appearance of pests and diseases on plants. This is expected to facilitate the process of detecting the presence and control of pests and diseases that appear during planting. (*/Rz) (IAAS/RUM)
