PPEDMAS: PRECISION PEST AND DISEASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM BASED ON MULTIDIMENSIONAL BIG DATA

• January 17, 2022
• By WASCAL

The PPeDMaS project – led by WASCAL and implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Hydro-Agricultural Dev’t & Mechanisation (Burkina Faso) and Afrique Geosciences (Ouagadougou) – aims to provide a compelling set of digital solutions that will encourage and propel the integration of science and technology into West African agriculture leading to a sustainable increase in agricultural productivity in the region.

This is achieved through a massive field data collection campaign targeting pests and diseases in maize, onion, and tomato farms in up to 15 selected districts (i.e., five districts for each crop type) of the country. The field data is collected using mobile phones (i.e., crowdsourcing) and three multispectral UAV devices (one for each type of crop, operated by separate three different aerial survey teams). This data, combined with other freely available images of pests, diseased, and healthy crops online, together with high-resolution gridded data on climatic and environmental variables as well as biophysical parameters of crops, will be thoroughly studied in research activities to develop different precision pests and diseases management solutions.

In all, PPeDMaS will deliver a web-based pests and diseases data platform, an early warning web application, an expert advisory system for managing pest and diseases during the first year, and a mobile application that will provide immediate solutions to farmers on pests and diseases after the first year.

WASCAL Contact : Dr. Hackman Kwame Oppong  ( Hackman.k@wascal.org)