Semi-Automated Traps for Insect Pest Monitoring

害虫对粮食作物造成严重危害，威胁粮食安全。监测害虫对限制它们造成的损害至关重要，然而，它需要专业知识来识别害虫和密集的农场访问，这是农民负担不起的。计算机技术和图像分析的最新发展为开发害虫自动识别和定量的陷阱提供了机会。自动陷阱不需要人工专业知识，因为昆虫数据存储在有助于识别特定昆虫的计算系统中。该技术使用基于云的互联网技术，因此不需要频繁的实地访问。我们最近开发了一种半自动工具，能够识别蓟马，这是许多作物的主要昆虫。我们的技术有潜力为其他害虫开发类似的工具。为了更好地利用我们的技术，我们需要在一个农业国家测试和优化我们的陷阱，在那里可以在实地条件下进行产品评估。我们选择巴基斯坦，不仅是因为巴基斯坦是全球十大农业国，也是中国产品和服务的新兴市场。棉花粉虱和芒果果蝇是巴基斯坦的两种主要害虫，我们的技术可以应用于它们。该项目旨在确定优化和进一步发展我国技术的可行性，以满足巴基斯坦农业部门的需求。主要目标是发展和加强学术合作，以支持我们的研发活动，确定田间试验的种植者，并更好地了解巴基斯坦的商业和监管情况。该项目的成功将为新技术和业务在新兴市场的扩展开辟新的机会。

Insect pests cause serious damage to food crops thus threatening food security. Monitoring insect pests is vital to limit the damage they cause, however, it requires specialist knowledge to identify pests and intensive farm visits, which farmers can't afford to do.Recent developments in the use of computing technology and image analysis offer opportunities to develop traps for automated insect pest identification and quantification. The automated traps doesn't require manual expertise as insect data is stored on a computing system which helps to identify a specific insect. The technology uses cloud based internet technology thus does not require frequent field visits. We have recently developed a semi-automated tool which is capable of identifying thrips, which is a major insect of many crops. Our technology holds potential for developing similar tools for other insect pests.To make a better use of our technology, we need to test and optimize our traps in an agricultural country where product evaluation can be done under field conditions. We have selected Pakistan as it is not only a top ten agricultural country, but also represents an emerging market for our products and services. Cotton whitefly and mango fruitfly are two major insect pests in Pakistan upon which our technology can be implemented.This project aims at determining the feasibility of optimizing and further development of our technology to meet the demand from Pakistan's agricultural sector. The key objectives are to develop and strengthen the academic collaboration to support our research and development activities, identify growers for field trials and gain a better understanding of commercial and regulatory landscape in Pakistan.The success of the project will open new opportunities for new technology and business expansion in an emerging market.