On the occasion of the EWA-BELT General Assembly, held on September 24th, 2024, at Spazio Cairoli in Milan, Professor Quirico Migheli from the University of Sassari and Giovanni Zanoni from OCCAM presented the last updates on the PlantHead Platform, within the framework of integrating traditional knowledge and innovation to promote food security.
Plants are vulnerable to various pathogens (fungi, bacteria, viruses, etc.) that impact productivity and yield quality and sometimes produce harmful toxins. Climate change exacerbates this issue by altering environmental conditions, creating an unsuitable environment that forces plants to mutate, change their habits, and migrate. For this reason, farmers and researchers are now facing widespread pathogen attacks that can change host plants and affect different species, compromising crops’ productivity. To overcome this obstacle, within the EWA-BELT project, the PlantHealth diagnostic Platform was developed to assist farmers in diagnosing and addressing crop issues.
As stated by Professor Quirico Migheli, the idea for a telediagnostic platform for agriculture in Africa arose from the rapid increase in mobile connectivity, including smartphone adoption, mobile internet usage, and related infrastructure growth. Leveraging the success of telediagnostic systems for humans and veterinary medicine during the COVID-19 era, this system was conceived six years ago to address plant health issues.
The platform enables farmers to submit requests detailing plant problems, which are processed by a central hub utilizing artificial intelligence. Solutions are provided through a network of local, national, and international researchers. Farmers can also collaborate through a community-based approach to share insights and solutions. This real-time data collection contributes to understanding crop disease patterns and enhancing epidemiological studies.
On this matter, Giovanni Zanoni, from OCCAM, illustrated the functionalities of the PlantHead Platform, its main results as well as its future developments. Specifically, the PlantHead platform is designed to support farmers in identifying and dealing with crop issues easily. Farmers can log into the platform and send an alert, including information such as the problem, symptoms, photos, voice description, scientific data, and GPS location. The alert is sent to the closest research center for evaluation. If the node cannot resolve the issue, the message is submitted to higher-level nodes for collaboration and solution development. Once a solution is found, it is tested on the field with the farmer and compared with traditional knowledge to ensure effectiveness.
Furthermore, the system includes a growing database of solutions for specific diseases, which outlines agronomic, biological, and chemical control measures. Thanks to this database, it is possible to generate automated diagnostics, identify possible problems, and share solutions. To conclude, Giovanni Zanoni announced that a mobile app on the Planthead platform will be released in the upcoming months. This app is tailored for field use and includes offline functionality.
The PlantHealth Platform, through its ongoing development, continues to support farmers on the FFRUs in addressing plant diseases, thereby enhancing agricultural resilience and productivity through innovative, technology-driven solutions. As it evolves, the platform not only helps to diagnose and manage crop health issues more efficiently but also provides farmers with the tools needed to adapt to environmental challenges and improve their farming practices.
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