AIR Releases a Report on Monitoring and Forecasting of Global Soybean and Rice Diseases and Pests

An AIR research team led by Prof. HUANG Wenjiang recently published a remote sensing early-warning report about global soybean and rice diseases and pests using remote sensing technology. It forecasts the long-term development of typical diseases and pets of soybeans and rice during their key growth periods across the world.  

Generally speaking, according to the report, there was a low incidence of soybean beam mosaic virus (SMV) and soybean aphid in 2018 in four major soybean-producing countries across the world: China, Brazil, Argentina and the US. For instance, only about 2.7% and 3.5% of China’s soybean planting area totalling 8.12 million hectares were affected by SMV and aphid, respectively.

The incidence of rice diseases and pests in the same year in China and other 12 major rice-producing countries in South and Southeast Asia was not very serious neither, says the report. For instance, about 3% and 18% of China’s rice planting area totaling 30.45 million hectares were affected by blast and planthopper, respectively.

Soybeans and rice are China’s strategic crops, therefore it is important to monitor their global growth and the incidences of their diseases and pests

As the only means to rapidly obtain large-scale continuous surface data so far, remote sensing is an irreplaceable technology to collect and explain large-scale agricultural information. In recent years, China has set up a high-frequent, high-spatial-resolution, multispectral and full-coverage earth observation system using both domestic and overseas satellites, offering a good platform to conduct large-scale dynamic monitoring of crop diseases and pests.

Since 2012, the research team has conducted a series of research focusing on the monitoring, forecasting and prevention system of crop diseases and pests. They released their reports and thematic maps on a regular basis.

The recent report on global soybean and rice disease and pests monitoring and forecasting is a follow-up project of its previous reports on global wheat disease and pests. In the future, the team will perform time-serial monitoring and early warning of global staple crops including wheat, rice, corn and soybean and release regular reports.  

The project are supported by several research programs, including CAS Strategic Priority Research Program Big Earth Data Engineering, National key R&D Program “Dynamic Monitoring Technology of Earth Resource and Environment and NSFC key international cooperation project on remote sensing monitoring and forecasting methods of staple crop diseases and pests.