Adopting Digital Solutions for Large Scale Surveillance of Crop Pests and Diseases in Developing Countries—A Review

Abstract

Crop pests and diseases are ranked as some of the world’s leading threats to agricultural productivity. The need to improve adoption of digital solutions prompted a review on the applicability of emerging digital solutions in large-scale surveillance of crop pest and diseases. This study presents findings on key requirements for achieving digitized large-scale pest surveillance, fitness for purpose of common autonomous biosecurity surveillance technologies, and prospects of smartphones as an alternative surveillance solution. Firstly, the research identified appropriateness of the solution, availability of supporting infrastructure and level of stakeholder involvement in solution formulation as some of the key determinants of digital solution adoption. Although most common autonomous biosecurity surveillance technologies are promising, their adoption in developing nations are limited by operational costs, legal requirements, skillsets, and operational environments among others. Thirdly, recent advancements in smartphones and wide spread ownership among farmers provide a unique opportunity for advancing Mobile Crowd-Sensing solutions in achieving large-scale pest surveillance. Lastly, we recommend designing an incentive mechanism to motivate farmers’ participation in a surveillance solution.