The Role of Technology in Integrated Pest Management in India
Agricultural pests cause significant loss to crop yields around the world, and are particularly devastating in the poverty stricken agricultural regions of India where farmers have little to fall back on. The frequency and severity of such invasions are thought to only be increasing due to climate change, the increase of global trade introducing foreign pests, and the continuous use of synthetic pesticides creating stronger and more resistant pest species. Integrated pest management (IPM) offers a necessary departure from the heavy dependence Indian farmers have on pesticides, but technological interventions in IPM are increasingly necessary to combat growing pest populations.
The Legacy of Pesticides in India
Since the 1950s and the arrival of the Green Revolution in India, heavy applications of glyphosate pesticides (primarily insecticides) have been the dominant method of pest control. These pesticides have a net positive effect on yields in the initial years of use, but things start to deteriorate as genetically resistant pests survive, breed, and gradually dominate the population. Repeated pesticide use also strips the soil of microorganisms and nutrients, harms beneficial insect populations, and the run-off can pollute water systems.1 Over time these factors contributed to lower crop yields for Indian farmers, and many of them also fell into debt traps associated with the high cost of purchasing chemicals and GMO seeds. All of these causes are cited as reasons for the farmer suicide crisis that swept across India and still continues today. This dark legacy has triggered the government and agribusinesses to reconsider how Indian farmers can change their practices, including combating pests in a more sustainable and economic way.
Current Tech Interventions
The promotion of IPM has been a mission of the Indian government since the early 90s, but agricultural apps are a promising avenue for farmers to troubleshoot and diagnose pest damage with immediate results. The increasingly wide availability of smart phones in rural Indian communities has created access to resources like agri-apps, online discussion boards, and chatbots that use AI assistants. These have the added benefit of connecting farmers to a local support network of other users, and empowering them with the tools and expertise to address complex pest issues on a case-by-case basis. For example, Dimitra’s app service provides a platform where farmers can post pictures of pest damage and receive advice and specific solutions from experts within hours.
In an effort to move away from glyphosate pesticides, many companies have developed biorational products, which are non-chemical and instead utilize living biological controls- such as Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) pesticides. These products use the microbe Bt which is toxic to the larvae of many pests but is naturally occurring in soil.3 Other bacteria or fungi are also being used as controls, and compared to chemical pesticides have minimal effects on other organisms, soil quality, and water sources.
Coming from another angle are companies manipulating pest pheromones, which can disrupt insect reproductive cycles by changing their mating patterns. By nature, pheromones are highly species-specific, so when applied they only affect the target pest and have the potential to be adapted to innumerable pest species.
The application of pesticides on a large scale is often ineffective and wasteful, so improving the efficiency of spraying with robotics and programmed drones is a vital part of improving pest management. Smart tech can use GPS and remote sensing to recognize pest breeding sites and only apply pesticides to specific areas where they are actually needed, reducing unnecessary pollution and minimizing costs for farmers.
What’s next?
The exponential nature of technological development is bringing new ideas to the field every day, and CRISPR pest control technologies are already available that edit the fertility and sex genes of insects. As always, the cost of new technological interventions are high, and something like CRISPR is not yet affordable for most Indian farmers. For an effective reduction in pest populations, biological and technological interventions must be combined with changing cultural practices that focus on IPM methods, such as crop rotation and soil building. Prioritizing and funding solutions that focus on farmer education and long-term ecosystem balance is essential, especially in India where there has been immense exploitation of the land and people in agricultural regions. Continuous adaptation and technologies with low environmental impact will be increasingly necessary as climate change brings extreme weather and new pest species into the mix. We now understand the detrimental impacts of past pesticide interventions that prioritized short-term profit gains over long-term livelihood security for Indian farmers. Moving forward, modern pest management has the opportunity to change this precedent with innovative bio-technologies, but only if these solutions place the needs of farmers first.
1. Udikeri, S. S., Kranthi, K. R., Patil, S. B., & Khadi, B. M. (2012). Emerging pests of Bt cotton and dynamics of insect pests in different events of Bt cotton. Karnataka Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 23(1), 153–156.
2. Meenu Agarwal and Ayushi Verma (August 31st 2020). Modern Technologies for Pest Control: A Review [Online First], IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.93556. Available from: https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/modern-technologies-for-pest-control-a-review
3. University of Massachusetts Amherst. n.d. “Biorational Pesticides.” UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. https://ag.umass.edu/fruit/ne-small-fruit-management-guide/general-information/biorational-pesticides.
4. Rathee, Mandeep & Dalal, Pradeep Kumar. (2018). Emerging insect pests in Indian agriculture. Indian Journal of Entomology. 80. 267. 10.5958/0974–8172.2018.00043.3.
5. Government of India. 2021. “IPM at A Glance.” Government of India Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage. http://ppqs.gov.in/divisions/integrated-pest-management/ipm-glance.
6. ICRISAT. n.d. “Artificial intelligence to track pests and diseases in India.” International Crops Research
Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.
https://www.icrisat.org/artificial-intelligence-to-track-pests-and-diseases-in-india/.
