Crop Loss Assessment Research Articles

Assessment of Crop Loss Due to Elephant Crop Raids and Its Eco Friendly Mitigation

The crop raiding by elephants is one of the important concern causing loss of livelihood and affects the farmer’s economy. Hence a study was conducted to estimate the crop losses and to evolve an economically feasible mitigation measures. The studies were conducted in villages belonging to Kodihalli and Uyyamballi Hobli of Kanakapura Taluka, Ramanagara District, Karnataka which is surrounded by thick forest cover during 2022 to 2023. The estimation on crop loss revealed that the highest crop losses were recorded in banana (5.26 to 46.54%) plantations followed by maize (2.47 to 41.87%), ragi (2.31 to 38.95%), mango (1.28 to 32.54%), pigeon pea (1.31-21.41%) and cowpea (1.46 to 12.68%). The highest economic loss was recorded in banana and mango crops. The evaluation of mitigation measures in ragi and maize crop revealed the use of bioacoustics and predator deterrent lights provided better economical feasible mitigation measures with the cost benefit ratio of 1:2.9 and 1:3.5 respectively. The use of barbed wire fence and use of solar fence (Agri solar) was also found effective in mitigating the crop raids by elephants. However, these mitigation measures are short term and has to be used in vulnerable stages of the crop only.

How Tea Plant Defends Against Blister Blight Disease: Facts Revealed and Unexplored Horizons.

Tea (Camellia sinensis [L.] O. Kuntze) is cultivated as a beverage crop. Despite being a hardy perennial, the tea plant is susceptible to various biotic stresses. Among them, the foliar disease blister blight (BB) is considered the most serious threat to the tea industry, particularly in Asia. BB caused by Exobasidium vexans (Basidiomycetes) was first reported from Northern India in 1868 and gradually established in other tea-growing countries. The fungus E. vexans attacks young harvestable shoots and causes 20 to 50% crop loss. Over the past 150 years, scientific research has delved into various aspects of BB disease, including pathogen biology, disease cycle, epidemiology, disease forecasting, crop loss assessment, and disease management strategies. In a recent shift in research focus, scientists have begun to investigate the resistance mechanisms of tea plants against BB and apply this knowledge to commercial tea cultivation. Although progress has been significant in understanding the fundamental aspects of BB resistance, the detailed molecular mechanisms driving this resistance remain under investigation. This paper focuses on the current understanding of defense mechanisms employed by tea plants against E. vexans and, conversely, how E. vexans overcomes these defenses. Furthermore, we discuss the application of plant resistance strategies in commercial tea cultivation. Lastly, we identify existing research gaps and propose future research directions in the field.

Assessment and Mapping of Soils Erosion and Crop Loss by Impact of Heavy Rainfall in Northern Dry Zone of Karnataka, India

Assessment and Mapping of Soils Erosion and Crop Loss by Impact of Heavy Rainfall in Northern Dry Zone of Karnataka, India

Assessment of crop loss due to whitefly pests of okra during the years

Assessment of crop loss due to whitefly pests of okra during the years

A fast and lightweight detection model for wheat fusarium head blight spikes in natural environments

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the most common and destructive infections in wheat, posing a serious threat to food security and human health. Real-time detection and severity assessment of wheat FHB are crucial for effective management and loss assessment. In this study, we proposed a novel and advanced YOLOv5s model for fast and accurate detection of wheat FHB. Firstly, we replaced the original backbone with MobileNetV3 and integrated spatial pyramid pooling-fast (SPPF). Subsequently, we replaced the C3 modules with the C3Ghost to reduce the parameters and complexity of this model without compromising detection performance. The proposed model was trained and evaluated on the wheat FHB dataset, achieving a high mean average precision (mAP) of 97.15 % using only 3.64 M parameters and 4.77 G floating-point operations (FLOPs). Compared with the original YOLOv5, these values have decreased by 49.72 % and 71.32 %, respectively. To assess the severity of FHB damage, the diseased spike rate was calculated and the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.9802, achieving a satisfactory statistical effect. These results validate the effectiveness of the improved YOLOv5s model for real-time detection of wheat FHB spikes. This study contributes to the development of accurate and efficient plant disease detection systems and provides a valuable reference for accurate quantitative assessment of crop losses, thus ensuring food security.

Training Resource for Improvement of Visual Assessment of Field Crop Disease and Insect Defoliation Severity

The Field Crop Disease and Insect Defoliation Severity Training Tool is an interactive online resource designed to help crop scouts and researchers to increase visual assessment skills for disease symptom and insect defoliation severity on plant leaves or other tissue. With two training options, it is widely available for any type of computer, tablet, or smartphone through common web browsers. The Field Crop Disease and Insect Defoliation Severity Training Tool is accessible through the Crop Protection Network website ( www.cropprotectionnetwork.org ). The training tool was designed to be updated for additional crops and tissue types, as well as for different disease lesions. Accurate assessment of severity is useful for making informed decisions regarding pest management, assessing research treatments, and assessing crop losses caused by injury. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .

Trenches reduce crop foraging by elephants: Lessons from Kibale National Park, Uganda for elephant conservation in densely settled rural landscapes.

Crop loss to wildlife, particularly elephants, threatens livelihoods and support for conservation around many protected areas in Africa and Asia. Low-cost elephant barriers have been successfully deployed in savannas but seldom tested around isolated forest parks where the stakes are high for local farmers and isolated elephant populations. We measured the effectiveness of a series of ≥3 m deep trenches dug by farmers neighboring Kibale National Park, Uganda. We monitored trench quality and crop loss to elephants weekly for a year across 47 transects in four park-adjacent communities, and conducted controlled, before-and-after comparisons of verified damage. Elephants damaged or destroyed >4 ha of crops during 48 independent foraging events, the majority <220m from the forest boundary. The frequency of damage varied significantly between and within communities. The majority of trenches were not breached by elephants but five suffered ≥4 breaches. Elephant-breached trenches and their neighboring trenches were lower quality than those not breached in the same week (Wilcoxon test: p<0.001). Trenches were also more likely to be breached where people had planted more crops favored by elephants (Wilcoxon test: p = 0.014). Thus, trench quality and the draw of palatable crops both appeared to influence elephant damage. Although trenches may deter elephants, challenges include heavy labor and difficulties of digging in rocky and swampy areas. Trenches alone will not prevent conflict but this strategy holds promise for hot-spots of conflict at forest edges. Given the stakes for farmers and biodiversity, we call for systematic assessment of crop losses and offer recommendations on monitoring and analysis. Such data will allow for stronger inference about effectiveness before investment of effort and resources in interventions.

Integrated Pest Management Of Field Crops

Insect pests, diseases, nematodes and weeds constitute major biotic stresses in crop production systems inflicting 15 to 25% or more yield losses. Adverse effects of pesticides can be countered through adoption of integrated pest management (IPM), which emphasizes harmonious use of safer and environment friendly methods of pest suppression. IPM works on the premise that all pest population levels are not injurious to crops. It is a knowledge intensive decision based activity and requires tools and techniques for its execution. IPM algorithm involves crop loss assessment, pest risk analysis, development of pest surveillance and forewarning methodology and decision support tools for harmonious integration of management tactics within the framework of Integrated Crop Management system. IPM modules for various field crops are based upon integration of resistant cultivars, cultural, mechanical and physical methods, natural enemies, biopesticides and pesticides to suppress pest population without jeopardizing the environment. Various organizations addressing the issue of plant health management need to converge in a mission mode to disseminate IPM throughout the country. This review covers the latest developments in these areas of IPM with main reference to India.

Assessment of Crop Loss in Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) Due to Damage by the Major Insect Pests

A field experiment on the yield loss assessment in Okra due to insect-pest was carried out at the research farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India during pre-kharif (15th February–14th May), kharif (15th May–14th August) and post-kharif (15th August–14th November) seasons in 2 years, 2015 and 2016. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design and replicated 6 times. The treatments were T1 (protected by chemical insecticide), T2(protected by organic insecticide), T3 (unprotected). The chemical protection significantly suppressed the jassid and % damage by fruit borer in contrast to organic protection and unprotected in all the 3 seasons. However, the‘t’ test analysis revealed non-significant relation between yield of organically and chemically managed plots and significant relation was found between the yield of untreated with organically and chemically managed plots which is directly related with the abundance of insect population. From chemically management 30.52%, 25.16% and 33.26% and from organically managed plots 29.37%, 20.68% and 32.38% gain in yield was recorded in pre-kharif, kharif and post-kharif seasons, respectively. The avoidable losses from chemically protected plots were 23.39%, 20.00% and 24.88% in 3 seasons, respectively. The same from organically managed plots were 22.73%, 16.98% and 24.39% in 3 cropping seasons respectively as mention above. Since, non-significant different in losses of yield lies between chemically and organically protected plots, organic management for pest management may be opted considering all aspects like health, environment and export earnings.

Estimación de la producción de cebada a partir de imágenes Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 y variables climáticas

A precise estimation of agricultural production provides relevant information for upcoming seasons, and helps in the assessment of crop losses before harvest in case of adverse situations. The objective of this work is to explore the development of a model capable of estimating barley production of a small agricultural production (127 ha) in Belchite, Spain. Variables adapted to the crop calendar of the growing barley are used to achieve that purpose. The variables have been created with weather data and remote sensing images. These images are acquired in two ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e., microwaves and optical spectral range, obtained from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2, respectively. Models are defined with a multiple linear regression method using all combinations of the independent variables correlated with production. The best linear regression model has a prediction error of 57.38 kg/ha (4%). The use of spectral variables, derived from radar vegetation index Cross Ratio (CR) and optical Inverted Red Edge Chlorophyll Index (IRECI), and climatic variables adapted to the crop calendar and climatic conditioning is revealed as an adequate strategy to obtain adjusted models.

Evaluation of a satellite drought indicator approach and its potential for agricultural drought prediction and crop loss assessment. The case of BEACON project

Evaluation of a satellite drought indicator approach and its potential for agricultural drought prediction and crop loss assessment. The case of BEACON project

EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION ON AGRICULTURE

In India, the problem of air pollutions increases due to boosting in size of population, industrialization, and urbanization in the last few decades. Thermal power plants and transport sector is the biggest contributor to air pollution in the country. In 1980, National Crop Loss Assessment Programme (NCLAN) was established for assessing current economic losses in agriculture by air pollution. Air pollutants are present in the forms of gases, p articles in suspension, different ionizing radiation in atmosphere and they cause directly or indirectly effects on agriculture crops as well as effects on animals and humans also. Reductions in leaf area,biomass, chlorophyll, ascorbic acid, and N contents have often been observed for the crop species growing in a polluted area. Black carbon directly absorbs sunlight, reduces the amount of light for photosynthesis and caused more damage to the crops and reduce the yields of the crops.

Assessment of crop loss caused by Chilo partellus in maize

The crop loss assessment in the present study is based on the premise that yield loss caused by maize stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) depends upon the degree of leaf injury measured in the form of leaf injury rating (LIR) that would help in adopting management measures at appropriate time to prevent the loss. The yield of large number of individual plants in two popular maize hybrids, i.e. HQPM1 and DHM117 was recorded at all leaf injury ratings at ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Pusa Campus, New Delhi. With increasing LIR, the average yield of plants decreased. A set of formula was developed to calculate yield loss, yield loss percentage and monetary loss. A template to calculate the same was formulated in excel sheet by entering input data on LIR scores, average yield at LIR, frequency of plants under each LIR, yield potential of test cultivars and market price of maize grain. The template gives output on yield loss percentage due to C. partellus damage and the corresponding economic loss by entering frequency of plants under each LIR, yield potential of cultivar and the current market price of grain. By comparing economic loss with the management cost, the economic threshold level can be determined which is an essential prerequisite for robust integrated pest management. After the harvest, by deducting actual yield from the expected yield (C. partellus yield loss), the loss caused by other factors is also calculated by the template.

Evaluation of a satellite drought indicator approach and its potential for agricultural drought prediction and crop loss assessment. The case of BEACON project.

Evaluation of a satellite drought indicator approach and its potential for agricultural drought prediction and crop loss assessment. The case of BEACON project.

Application note: Crop-loss assessment monitor – A multi-model and multi-stage decision support system

Real-time knowledge about crop growth conditions is critical to make decisions about risk management and food security planning. Several crop forecasting decision support systems (DSSs) are available which use crop models, remote sensing, weather derivatives or statistical modelling. The results from such DSS are conditioned to the goodness of the model used and the assumptions made. This paper describes a web-based DSS– Crop-loss Assessment Monitor (CAM) for real-time crop growth monitoring, loss estimation, and insurance analytics using different methods at multiple times during the crop growth for rice, wheat, maize, soybean, pearl millet, sorghum, and groundnut. The core of CAM comprises of a set of databases and system-analysis components. Its modular design allows customization for different countries and policy scenarios. The potential of CAM in monitoring crop yield losses is illustrated for soybean crop in India.

A Systematic Review on Case Studies of Remote-Sensing-Based Flood Crop Loss Assessment

This article reviews case studies which have used remote sensing data for different aspects of flood crop loss assessment. The review systematically finds a total of 62 empirical case studies from the past three decades. The number of case studies has recently been increased because of increased availability of remote sensing data. In the past, flood crop loss assessment was very generalized and time-intensive because of the dependency on the survey-based data collection. Remote sensing data availability makes rapid flood loss assessment possible. This study groups flood crop loss assessment approaches into three broad categories: flood-intensity-based approach, crop-condition-based approach, and a hybrid approach of the two. Flood crop damage assessment is more precise when both flood information and crop condition are incorporated in damage assessment models. This review discusses the strengths and weaknesses of different loss assessment approaches. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Landsat are the dominant sources of optical remote sensing data for flood crop loss assessment. Remote-sensing-based vegetation indices (VIs) have significantly been utilized for crop damage assessments in recent years. Many case studies also relied on microwave remote sensing data, because of the inability of optical remote sensing to see through clouds. Recent free-of-charge availability of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data from Sentinel-1 will advance flood crop damage assessment. Data for the validation of loss assessment models are scarce. Recent advancements of data archiving and distribution through web technologies will be helpful for loss assessment and validation.

Risk assessment of the global crop loss in ENSO events

The uncertainty associated with predicting extreme weather events has serious implications for the world, owing to the greater vulnerability to such events. Continual exposure to unanticipated extreme events is a contributing factor for the global crop loss. Therefore, accurate risk assessment of the global staple crop loss in ENSO events is indispensable to ensure global food security under climate change. In the study, the risk of crop loss is assessed at a global scale considering three factors: the crop yield reduction rate, its coefficient of variation (CV), and the crop reduction probability, based on which a crop loss risk index (RI) was developed and calculated. The results suggest wheat in Canada, Brazil, eastern Europe, Morocco, South Africa, and Australia, and corn in central and southern African countries are at high risk of crop loss with a RI > 1.70 in both El Niño and La Niña events. Rice in the USA, Egypt, and southeast Asia is at low risk in ENSO events with a RI < 0.70. Wheat in Argentina, India, Poland, and Egypt, and corn and soybean in Brazil and China are at high to medium risk in El Niño but at low risk in La Niña events. Wheat in western European countries (France and Germany) and Ethiopia, and corn and soybean in the USA are at low risk in El Niño, but at medium to high risk in La Niña events. In general, wheat, soybean, and rice are at higher risk in El Niño, whereas corn exhibits the opposite trend—it is at higher risk in La Niña events. Wheat is the most vulnerable of the four studied crops to ENSO events. Soybean is at higher risk in El Niño than corn, but corn is at higher risk in La Niña than soybean. Rice is at far lower risk than the other three staple crops in ENSO events, especially in La Niña.

Crop Loss Estimations due to Plant-Parasitic Nematodes in Major Crops in India

Plant-parasitic nematodes are a major biotic stress in successful crop cultivation. All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Nematodes in Cropping Systems is entrusted with developing nematode management technologies for varied agro-climatic zones. A precise assessment of crop losses caused by nematodes to crops and periodic update of the same are useful to fix research priorities, besides serving as a benchmark for policy planners/funding agencies for research support and public/private sector to make appropriate investments for developing nematode management products. Based on data generated through AICRP on Nematodes over the years, a critical analysis has been made on losses in different crops. Overall, plant-parasitic nematodes cause 21.3% crop losses amounting to Rs. 102,039.79 million (1.58 billion USD) annually; the losses in 19 horticultural crops were assessed at Rs. 50,224.98 million, while for 11 field crops it was estimated at Rs. 51,814.81 million. Rice root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne graminicola, was economically most important causing yield loss of Rs. 23,272.32 million in rice. Citrus (Rs. 9828.22 million), banana (Rs. 9710.46 million) among fruit crops; and tomato (Rs. 6035.2 million), brinjal (Rs. 3499.12 million) and okra (2480.86 million) among the vegetable crops suffered comparatively more losses.

Economic injury level and crop loss assessment for Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) on different tomato cultivars

AbstractSpecifying the relationship between pests and their host plants in terms of damage is one of the basic concepts of integrated pest management (IPM) programmes. The crop loss and economic injury level (EIL) of Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) were determined on different tomato cultivars using gain threshold (field experiment) and regression (semi‐field experiment) methods. By assessing the crop loss in 2015 and 2016, four out of seven infested tomato cultivars had a significant yield loss in terms of weight of total fruits versus the control under the open‐field conditions. However, the total number of tomato cultivars had no significant difference to control treatment. The semi‐field experiment included six treatments (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 gravid females/plant) and examined two tomato cultivars. The tomato cages with between 6 and 10 gravid females/plant showed the highest number and weight of damaged fruits. Based on pesticide control costs, the market value of tomato and the control efficacy, we determined the EIL for T. absoluta. In the field experiment, the EIL value for T. absoluta on “Petomech,” “Cal JN3,” “Rio Grande” and “Early Urbana Y” cultivars was 4.15, 4.47, 4.70 and 5.04 larvae per plant, respectively. Based on regression equations, we calculated the EIL values for T. absoluta on “Cal JN3” and “Early Urbana Y” to be 4.75 and 5.44 larvae/plant, respectively. Crop loss assessment and EIL are necessary components of cost‐effective IPM programs and can be effective tools for making decisions about the application of pesticides against T. absoluta.

Quantitative Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment of Crop Loss in the Yangtze River Delta Region of China

Due to their complexity, hazard interactions are often neglected in current studies of multi-hazard risk assessment. As a result, the assessment results are qualitative or semi-quantitative and are difficult to use in regional risk management. In this paper, the crop loss risk due to heavy rain and strong wind in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region of China was quantitatively assessed, based on the joint return periods of these hazards and a vulnerability surface. The joint return period is obtained with a copula function based on the marginal distribution of each hazard. The vulnerability is fitted by considering the joint hazard intensity, the sown area of crops, elevation, and GDP per capita. The results show that counties with a high value of joint hazard probability are clustered in the southeast coastal area and that the value gradually decreases from south to north and from east to west. The multi-hazard risk has a similar pattern, with a large value in the southeast coastal area and a low value in the northwest. The proposed method can be used for quantitative assessment of multi-hazard risk, and the results can be used for regional disaster risk management and planning.