Plant pest surveillance: from satellites to molecules

Abstract

Plant pests and diseases impact both food security and natural ecosystems, and the impact has been accelerated in recent years due to several confounding factors. The globalisation of trade has moved pests out of natural ranges, creating damaging epidemics in new regions. Climate change has extended the range of pests and the pathogens they vector. Resistance to agrochemicals has made pathogens, pests, and weeds more difficult to control. Early detection is critical to achieve effective control, both from a biosecurity as well as an endemic pest perspective. Molecular diagnostics has revolutionised our ability to identify pests and diseases over the past two decades, but more recent technological innovations are enabling us to achieve better pest surveillance. In this review, we will explore the different technologies that are enabling this advancing capability and discuss the drivers that will shape its future deployment.

New and Emerging Insect Pest and Disease Threats to Forest Plantations in Vietnam

“…However, the latter is difficult to achieve given the long land and sea borders in Vietnam. Early detection is critical [121], and for Vietnam, this necessitates developing forest health monitoring protocols for the extensive forest reserves in protection-special-purpose as well as urban forests. This will require the use of sentinel plantings [122] and remote sensing to detect trees under stress.…”

Plant Disease Sensing: Studying Plant-Pathogen Interactions at Scale

“…Remote plant disease sensing offers monitoring at previously unachievable scales, filling gaps in space and time between labor-intensive field measurements while reducing uncertainty in downstream analyses and management decision making. At the regional level, remote sensing can support strategic use of on-the-ground expertise by preidentifying regions of likely disease to which scouts can be sent for evaluation ( 42 – 45 ). Proximal sensing systems deployed in-field on all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), tractors, or autonomous rovers with on-board computer vision can aid experts in monitoring larger areas ( 46 – 49 ).…”

Control of crop diseases through Integrated Crop Management to deliver climate‐smart farming systems for low‐ and high‐input crop production

“…In addition, electronic noses can be deployed to detect volatile organic compounds emitted by plants attacked by a pathogen (Oerke, 2020;Silva et al, 2021).…”