Digital Forecast Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture: Optimization of Fungicidal Treatments of Potato for the Far East Region

Abstract

Far East represents the zone of risk farming that limits the productivity of potato significantly suffering from the late blight epiphytoties. Modern digital technologies can help farmers to overcome this problem. Using the VNIIFBlight Decision Support System (DSS) and archived data (2004–2018) from eight weather stations of the Khabarovsk Territory, we zoned this region in relation to potential potato yield losses associated with the late blight outbreak risk and calculated average frequencies of seasons with high, moderate, and low risks for each observation point. For each season and point, DSS determined dates of possible reinfection and the optimal dates of fungicidal treatments providing efficient protection. Comparison of the DSS-recommended scheme with the routine approach (regular treatments every 8 days) showed that DSS provided 1.9, 2.2, and 5× reduction of the number of treatments for seasons with potential yield losses >20, 10–20, and <10%, respectively. To provide farmers with the access to information required for decision-making, a “Geosystem” GIS was developed as a part of the meteorological service of the Infometeoservice company (http://infometeos.com/Map/Data). The GIS works in a real-time mode indicating the risk of the late blight outbreak at the points of interest that is important for the final decision concerning crop protection activities.