Drones, Mobile Apps: The Latest in Pest Control in Southeast Asia

By BusinessWorld|19 August 2021

Farmers in Southeast Asia are using drones and smartphone apps to wage war against the fall armyworm (FAW), a transboundary agricultural pest that causes major damage to maize and other crops, reports BusinessWorld.

Drones help smallholder farmers shift to more precise agriculture practices, reduce pesticide use, and promote safer pesticide handling, said Alison Watson, a consultant who is working with agricultural development platform Grow Asia to monitor and manage FAW in the region.

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Farm management mobile apps, meanwhile, provide early warning pest alerts to farmers as well as FAW management advice.

“Not every farmer has to own a drone,” said Watson. “We need to consider different business models that allow smallholder farmers in the Philippines to access such technologies in a low-cost and effective way.”

Aside from digital-centric approaches to managing FAW, Grow Asia advocates the use of biocontrol (the use of living organisms to depress a pest population), surveillance and monitoring, the breeding of pest- and climate change-resistant maize, and farmer communications.

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BW BusinessWorld is an Indian business magazine. The magazine was published by ABP Group, whose most prominent publications are The Telegraph, Anandabazar Patrika, Sananda, Anandamela. and others. See all author stories here.

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