Adaptive AI-enabled and Context-enhanced Mobile Intelligence for Climate-smart Pest Management to Optimise Sustainable and Resilient Farming

在世界范围内，农作物受到无脊椎害虫的威胁，这些害虫造成取食损害并传播植物病毒。高水平的虫害可造成高达80%的产量损失。目前，建议农民遵循经济阈值，并在超过阈值时采取管理干预措施。一般来说，阈值被定义为虫害侵袭的程度，超过该程度预计作物将遭受经济损失。随着对杀虫剂使用限制的增加和越来越多的抗杀虫剂害虫种群的出现，种植者正在寻求更可持续的综合虫害管理（IPM）做法。为了有效地部署IPM实践，需要三个组成部分：1)准确识别存在的有害生物；2)准确的阈值信息及其有效性；3)本地/区域害虫种群的抗药性信息。然而，有许多障碍限制了IPM原则的采用：准确识别无脊椎动物有害生物是困难的，需要分类培训，这是种植者经常缺乏的技能；目前的阈值在现场条件下几乎没有经过测试和验证，限制了种植者的信心；主要害虫的抗药性信息在空间上是有限的，主要是在国家基础上提供的。吸收IPM的主要障碍是种植者对自己识别有害生物的能力缺乏信心。在最近的一个项目中，我们开发了一个早期的解决方案，通过建立一个人工智能驱动的害虫检测模型来识别小麦作物中的害虫（创新项目10002902）。在此，我们建议在该项目的成功基础上，将人工智能驱动的害虫检测模型扩展到其他可耕地作物的害虫，并将更多信息整合到最终用户输出中，以解决IPM吸收的其他障碍。为了实现这一目标，我们将把害虫检测模型扩展到油菜籽和马铃薯的地上害虫，整合主要害虫的区域特异性杀虫剂抗性状况：白菜蚜虫、桃马铃薯蚜虫、马铃薯蚜虫和白菜茎跳蚤甲虫，并测试和验证这些害虫子集的阈值。我们的主要产出将是一个智能应用程序，它提供有害生物检测支持，突出显示已识别有害生物的当前阈值，并提供有关区域有害生物种群抗药性状况的信息。人工智能模型的开发将由谢菲尔德大学领导；虫害防治咨询和阈值测试由虫害防治处负责；杀虫剂抗性测试将由利物浦大学领导；智能应用程序用户界面的开发将由Mutus科技有限公司领导。

Worldwide, crops are threatened by invertebrate pests which cause feeding damage and transmit plant viruses. High levels of infestation can cause up to 80% yield loss. Currently, farmers are advised to follow economic thresholds and to apply management interventions when thresholds are exceeded. Generally, thresholds are defined as the level of pest infestation above which it is expected the crop will suffer economic damage. As restrictions on insecticide use increase and a greater number of insecticide resistant pest populations emerge, growers are looking towards more sustainable integrated pest management (IPM) practices.To effectively deploy IPM practices three components are required: 1) accurate identification of the pest(s) present; 2) accurate information on thresholds and their efficacy; 3) information on insecticide resistance of the local/regional pest population. However, there are numerous barriers that restrict the uptake of IPM principles: Accurate identification of invertebrate pests is difficult and requires taxonomic training, a skill that growers often lack; current thresholds have received little testing and validation under field conditions, limiting grower confidence; and insecticide resistance information for key pests is spatially-limited and primarily provided on a national basis.The central barrier for IPM uptake is lack of grower confidence in their ability to identify a pest. In a recent project we developed an early-stage solution to this problem by building an AI-driven pest-detection model to identify insect pests in wheat crops (Innovate project 10002902). Here, we propose to build on the success of this project by expanding the AI-driven pest-detection model to pests of other arable crops and by integrating more information into the end-user output in order to address the other barriers to IPM uptake. To achieve this we will expand the pest detection model to above-ground pests of rapeseed and potato, integrate region-specific insecticide resistance status for key pests: cabbage aphid, peach-potato aphid, potato aphid, and the cabbage stem flea beetle, and test and validate thresholds for a subset of these pests.Our main output will be a smart-app that provides pest detection support, highlights the current threshold for the identified pest, and provides information on the insecticide resistant status of regional pest populations. AI-model development will be led by The University of Sheffield; provision of pest management advice and threshold testing will be led by ADAS; insecticide resistance testing will be led by The University of Liverpool; and the development of the smart-app user-interface will be led by Mutus Tech Ltd.