Feasibility Analysis of Farmer-centered Mobile Intelligence for Sustainable Pest Management in China

作为世界上最大的农用化学品消费国，中国仅在世界9%的耕地上使用了全球30%以上的农药。在中国，人们经常在作物上施用农药，以防止有害生物的危害，并限制产量损失。这些应用通常是在保险的基础上而不是规定的基础上进行的，因为害虫的丰度很高。随着可持续作物保护在中国实现“净零排放”计划中变得越来越重要，对新型病虫害管理工具的需求不断增加，这些工具可以帮助中国农民以更少的化学投入和减少土壤侵蚀的方式实现更可持续的种植。该项目将探索利用移动智能技术作为以农民为中心的具有成本效益的病虫害管理解决方案的可行性，从而提高中国的经济效益和环境可持续性。我们将依靠现有的基于深度学习的移动小麦害虫识别技术，该技术是与谢菲尔德大学和中国科学院（CAS）合作开发的一个创新英国项目。该技术提供了：小麦害虫的快速检测和有效定量；将有害生物量化纳入与区域相关的有害生物耐受阈值；决定是否建议使用农药。本项目将通过问卷调查和访谈调查中国小农和农民合作社使用移动病虫害管理应用程序的接受程度，通过综合文献综述分析应用程序在支持中国农业可持续发展方面的感知影响，并预测在中国使用上述技术的潜在长期经济效益。通过与中国农业科学院现有的合作，我们将与中国安徽省的4个小农户和2个农民合作社开展合作。本项目将从用户接受度、环境影响和商业回报等方面，对上述技术在中国的可持续有害生物治理进行全面的分析和评价。该报告应包括：1)中国农民对移动应用程序在害虫可持续治理中的使用需求识别和接受结果分析；2)利用农艺、环境和社会经济标准分析移动病虫害治理方案的优缺点；3)潜在的开源商业模式，为小型种植者和公众免费提供基本的移动应用程序。4)企业对企业模式，向中国的中型种植者和农艺师销售专业软件许可、服务和专业培训。

As the world's largest consumer of agricultural chemicals, China has used more than 30 percent of global pesticides on only 9 percent of the world's crop land. Pesticides are often applied to crops to provide protection against pest damage and to limit yield losses in China. These applications are often done on an insurance basis rather than a prescriptive basis because pest abundance is high. With sustainable crop protection becoming more important to achieve the "Net-zero emission" plan in China, there is increasing demand for new pest management tools that can help Chinese farmers grow more sustainably with fewer chemical inputs and reduced soil erosion.This project will explore the feasibility of utilising mobile intelligence techniques as a cost-effective farmer-centred pest management solution with improved economic benefits and environmental sustainability in China. We will rely on our existing deep learning based mobile wheat pest recognition technique developed from an Innovate-UK project, in partnership with the University of Sheffield and China Academy of Sciences (CAS). The technique offers: rapid detection and effective quantification of wheat pests; places pest quantification into context of regionally relevant pest tolerance thresholds; determines whether a pesticide application is advised to use.This project will examine the acceptability of using mobile pest management apps by Chinese smallholder farmers and farmer cooperatives via questionnaires and interviews, analysis the perceived impact of the apps in supporting sustainable agricultural development in China via comprehensive literature reviews, and predict the potential long-term economic benefits of using above technique in China. Through existing collaboration with CAS, we will engage with 4 smallholder farmers and 2 farmer cooperatives at Anhui Province in China.This project will deliver a comprehensive analysis and evaluation report discussing above technique for sustainable pest management in China in terms of user acceptability, environment impacts and business return. This report should include: 1) Farmer requirement identification and their acceptance results analysis of mobile apps usage in sustainable pest management in China; 2) Analysis the strong and weak points of the mobile pest management solution using agronomic, environmental, and social-economic criteria; 3) potential open-source business model that provides basic mobile applications to small-size growers and public for free. 4) The business-to-business approach, which sells professional software licenses, services and professional training to middle-size growers and agronomists in China.