Historical project · 2021
Feasibility Analysis of Farmer-Centred Mobile Intelligence for Sustainable Pest Management in China
A 2021 study exploring how mobile pest management tools could support smallholder farmers in China to reduce pesticide use and improve environmental outcomes.
Project context
As one of the world’s largest agricultural producers, China applies a disproportionate share of global pesticides on a relatively small share of crop land. Pesticides are often applied on an insurance basis rather than a prescriptive one, reflecting the difficulty of monitoring pest pressure at field scale.
Sustainable crop protection is increasingly central to China’s broader environmental ambitions. There is growing demand for pest management tools that help smallholder farmers grow crops with fewer chemical inputs and less soil disturbance.
What this project examined
This project explored the feasibility of using mobile intelligence — specifically Mutus Tech’s deep-learning wheat pest recognition technique — as a farmer-centred, cost-effective pest management approach with potential economic and environmental benefits.
We:
- Conducted questionnaires and interviews with four smallholder farmers and two farmer cooperatives in Anhui Province, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
- Reviewed the perceived impact of mobile pest management apps on sustainable agriculture through literature analysis.
- Modelled potential long-term economic benefits of deploying the technique in China.
Outputs
The project produced an analysis and evaluation report covering:
- Farmer requirements and acceptance of mobile pest management apps for sustainable use.
- The agronomic, environmental and socio-economic strengths and limitations of the mobile pest management solution.
- A potential open-source business model offering basic mobile apps to smallholders and a business-to-business approach for licensing professional services.
Partners
Delivered with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and funded through Innovate UK.