A new approach for designing decision support system used in the potato late blight and early blight management practice

Abstract

Potato is one of the most important food products in Russia. The total annual production of potato in Russia is ∼35–40 mln. tons; this production volume is surpassed only by China and India. Nevertheless, domestic agricultural industry still can’t completely meet the national consumption of potato, so every year Russia imports up to 1.5 mln. tons of potatoes. One of the reasons of such situation is that potato is very difficult crop for cultivation, since it is susceptible to a number of abiotic and biotic factors able to cause significant reduction of the yield quantity and quality. This paper is dedicated to a new approach in plant protection and demonstrates how information technologies can help us to increase the efficiency of the disease management and to reduce the negative influence of fungicides on the human health and environment.