AI-powered pheromone traps, developed by ICAR– Central Institute for Cotton Research, are set to benefit cotton farmers against pink bollworm. These traps utilize camera sensors and Artificial Intelligence technology specially developed for precise pest population monitoring.
The traps have been launched as a pilot project in major cotton-growing districts of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. The project has the potential to significantly reduce economic losses for farmers grappling with PBW (Pectinophora gossypiella) infestations.
Pheromone traps contain the pheromone gossyplure, a chemical emitted by female moths to attract male moths, which have long been used to reduce crop pests. The farmers have to install five pheromone traps per hectare and monitor the activity of male moths to determine whether it exceeds the economic threshold level, or ETL. ETL is the insect population level or the extent of crop damage at which the crop value exceeds the cost of pest control.
Pheromone traps operate on the principle of luring and capturing pests through specific pheromones placed on a sticky pad inside a box or device.
By enabling producers to take action at the right time, digital pheromone traps significantly contribute to the preservation of crop quality and yield, and also assist farmers in avoiding unnecessary pesticide application.
Farmers will receive hourly crop updates via their mobile phone while a camera fixed in the trap take regular pictures of the moths that stick to the trap. These pictures would be transmitted in real-time to a remote server in the cloud. The images of insects would be analyzed using a machine learning algorithm, trained to identify and count PBWs caught in traps. Those with a username and password, from ICAR scientists to farmers and agriculture extension officers, will have access to pest alert information in real-time on their mobile phones.
The PBW destroys parts of the developing cotton fruit, including the square (flower bud) and the boll (rounded sac of seeds with cotton fibers). With the help of pheromone traps CICR aims to empower cotton farmers, who often faced crop damage under the pilot programme.