Disease Forecasting and Pest Management for Indian Apple: An Application of ICT

Apple is one of the most widely cultivated fruit crops in region of northern hilly area of Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. In the present study a system is suggested and under development by authors using the information and communication technology (ICT) which predict the growth of various disease in Apple fruit like Apple scab, Marssonina blotch, Red mite pest etc. and communicate to farmers on their mobile about pre information of severity of disease so that they can easily handle the risk by pest management. This system provides solution to mitigate the disease risk. As an ICT tools different kind of wireless sensors, Data acquisition Card, computer, network protocol (TCP/IP), GPRS, GSM mobile communication module and web interface protocol were used to design the complete forecasting system. Growth of apple disease and pests are highly dependent on various environmental parameters like temperature, Relative humidity (RH), wind velocity/direction, and leaf wetness duration that were measured by particular sensors and using prediction model the infection of index was calculated which tells about severity of risk and this information are sent to farmers and also to the server located at far away from field using GPRS (General packet radio service). This ICT application consist both hardware and software phase to extract the information about the risk and this processed information is shared on web page which can be easily accessible from every corner of the world.