Equipment uses artificial intelligence to monitor cotton boll weevil

Equipment that will help producers monitor the cotton boll weevil, considered the main pest of the crop, is being finalized. The innovation developed by the startup LiveFarm, in partnership with Embrapa, automatically counts insects in real time, optimizing time and resources with monitoring, in addition to reducing the number of sprays. The equipment will be presented to producers during the 13th edition of the Brazilian Cotton Congress, which takes place from August 16th to 18th, in Salvador (BA).

In a recent survey carried out with around 60 cotton farmers in the Cerrado, it was found that the boll weevil is the pest that requires the highest number of sprays, varying between 18 and 22 applications per harvest, in the last seven harvests. The losses caused by the pest can exceed the value of one thousand reais per hectare, which is equivalent to around 10% of the total production cost.

“The technology will improve the control strategy and application of insecticides, with potential reductions of 30% to 50%,” predicts the founding partner of LiveFarm, Joélcio Carvalho.

The equipment consists of a sensor that is coupled to conventional pheromone traps and sends the data to an application, facilitating the producer's decision-making regarding pest management. “When the insect passes, the artificial intelligence identifies it and sends the counts to the cloud. The system differs due to the counting method and the fact that it works without the need for a telephone signal or satellite internet, making it possible to adapt to any environment”, explains Carvalho.

For the researcher at Embrapa Algodão, José Ednilson Miranda, who worked on improving the trap with remote sensing, the equipment is a disruptive technology, which is part of the new scenario of digital agriculture in which farms have modernized and increasingly use artificial intelligence for managing crops. “Cotton is produced in very large areas and the technology eliminates the need to make visits. Furthermore, visits can be made at a time when the insect will not be present. While the trap will be in the field constantly, providing information as soon as the insect arrives,” he notes.

Another advantage of the system in relation to the current monitoring method is that it facilitates localized and early control of pests, reducing confirmation of the presence of the pest in the field from a week to less than an hour.

“Typically pests start in a certain area and then disperse. As you can detect this initial colonization, you can control the pest population early, without spending more having to spray the entire area and without having any losses resulting from the attack”, explains the researcher.

Another application for the use of these traps is to leverage data collection for localized control decision-making through agricultural drones. “Today we already have spraying drones with 10, 20 and 30 liters of capacity that will be great for carrying out this localized control. This can also be automated so that a single operator can solve this problem in a timely manner before the pest spreads to the crop”, Miranda envisions.

The development of the system began in mid-2018, with the patent process. The equipment prototype was being improved in partnership with Embrapa, Instituto Matogrossense do Algodão (IMAmt) and other institutions linked to the production sector.

Monitoring with traps

In Brazil, pheromone traps are widely used in boll weevil population monitoring and insect control programs. When used correctly, they minimize the unnecessary use of insecticides, bringing economic and environmental benefits to farmers and society.

Embrapa researcher Cherre Bezerra da Silva explains that, to obtain the boll weevil population rate present in the area to be cultivated, the traps must be installed and maintained along the entire perimeter of the area at intervals between 150 and 300 meters apart. and must be inspected weekly for a period of nine weeks prior to sowing the new cotton crop.

“The captures give an idea of ​​the intensity of the boll weevil infestation; Subsequently, the capture data will help define the number of insecticide sprays that will be carried out at the beginning of the flowering of the new crop, when the insects migrate from the refuge to the area planted with cotton,” he says.

Optimization of the integrated management of cotton boll weevil

The new system adds to a series of tools that are being developed to optimize cotton boll weevil management. Among them are new volatile organic compounds that are more attractive to the boll weevil and act in synergy with the pheromone in the traps; updating the pest's economic damage level, with greater flexibility for different growing conditions; and a biological insecticide formulation containing semiochemicals attractive to the boll weevil and isolated from fungi pathogenic to the insect.

The process of chemical elimination of cotton crop residues and volunteer plants (tigueras and ratoons) that support boll weevil populations will also be developed; in addition to remote control equipment for the chemical destruction of volunteer cotton plants; strains of fungi and bacteria pathological to the boll weevil; attract-and-kill technology with bait plants for localized control of remaining and recolonizing boll weevil populations; software for predictions of boll weevil presence based on climate data; among others.

The innovations are being developed by teams from Embrapa Algodão (PB), Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (DF) and Embrapa Arroz e Feijão (GO), in partnership with the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), Federal University of Goiás (UFG) , Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology Goiano (IF Goiano Campus Rio Verde), among other institutions linked to cotton farming.