Feasibility Analysis
Feasibility Analysis of Farmer-centered Mobile Intelligence for Sustainable Pest Management in China
This project explores the feasibility of utilising mobile intelligence techniques as a cost-effective farmer-centred pest management solution with improved economic benefits and environmental sustainability in China. We will rely on our existing deep learning based mobile wheat pest recognition technique.
We will examine the acceptability of using mobile pest management apps by Chinese smallholder farmers and farmer cooperatives via questionnaires and interviews, analysis the perceived impact of the apps in supporting sustainable agricultural development in China via comprehensive literature reviews, and predict the potential long-term economic benefits of using above technique in China. Through existing collaboration with CAS, we will engage with 4 smallholder farmers and 2 farmer cooperatives at Anhui Province in China. The project will build on existing technologies, data resources and platforms from Mutus-Tech.
Public Description
As the world’s largest consumer of agricultural chemicals, China has used more than 30 percent of global pesticides on only 9 percent of the world’s crop land. Pesticides are often applied to crops to provide protection against pest damage and to limit yield losses in China. These applications are often done on an insurance basis rather than a prescriptive basis because pest abundance is high. With sustainable crop protection becoming more important to achieve the “Net-zero emission” plan in China, there is increasing demand for new pest management tools that can help Chinese farmers grow more sustainably with fewer chemical inputs and reduced soil erosion.
This project delivers a comprehensive analysis and evaluation report discussing above technique for sustainable pest management in China in terms of user acceptability, environment impacts and business return. This report includes:
- Farmer requirement identification and their acceptance results analysis of mobile apps usage in sustainable pest management in China;
- Analysis the strong and weak points of the mobile pest management solution using agronomic, environmental, and social-economic criteria;
- Potential open-source business model that provides basic mobile applications to small-size growers and public for free.
- The business-to-business approach, which sells professional software licenses, services and professional training to middle-size growers and agronomists in China.
Market
In 2019, it is estimated by the Ministry of Agriculture of China that, the total area vulnerable to pest and diseases (P&D) estimated to be 66.7 million ha. In China, there are over 682,000 wheat-growing small and medium farms, 55,900 crop-production companies, over 2,800 pest control stations, and over 40,000 village or town level pest control and service centres. Given an average P&D control coverage with 30% in the above users of China by 2019, the current market of wheat P&D control products and services is about £1.14 – £3.41 billion and will potentially reach £5.68 billion in next five years.
We provides a outline of the current practices and costs for Chinese agriculture. We understand the problems faced by these communities and the proposed technology could modify current practices when applying pesticides to cereal crops. Wide adoption will be dependent on the economics and practicality of the technology. We develop the knowledge of economic threshold levels of pests for the reliability in the technology. The future market opportunities (size, drivers, dynamics) that the study might open up will be quantified. China offers significant opportunity for the use of the proprietary technology. There is potential for significant business opportunities in China.
Impact
This project impacts on enhancing the UK’s leading position of global Agri-tech market. Winter wheat is one of the most important crops grown over the UK, however sustainable wheat protection is always under pression from fewer chemical inputs and reduced soil This project will impact on enhancing the UK’s leading position of global Agri-tech market. The acceptance analysis of mobile intelligence techniques could potentially enhance their precision-farming consultancy services, and may also open up a new direction on mobile platform towards agricultural customers in China. The sustainable impact analysis will be attractive to many Chinese actors in this area because of its practicability and usefulness. There will certainly be a market for this technology which will be a driving factor for more investment in future and creation of new commercial ventures. The China market analysis of sustainable pest management for promoting the engagement and professional training of farmers will provide an essential time-to-market advantage for Mutus-Tech over competitors.
Follow-on activities: We will focus the exploitation activities on improving their current operations and business position in China market. Mutus-Tech has rich collaborations with CAS in China, and our UK partners in ongoing Innovate UK projects and EPSRC CASE projects. These connections will help promote and disseminate the product within the China market.
Approaches to achieve this include:
- Joint activities and partnership building with end-users and stakeholders in China via producing reports and articles to disseminate them;
- Open-source business models to promote for the product more widely in public;
- Product promotion and result dissemination at trade fairs, user meetings, and industry events.
