The ancient Egyptians were one of the first to understand the need for a pest management system for agriculture. As early as 3000 BC, they used cats to help save their grains from rats. We have come a long way since then, but pest management is as important to our agricultural safety as ever. Over the years, there have been many instances where pests (specially fungus & locusts) have laid waste to hundreds & millions of hectares of land. This has led to massive famines and migration of human populations. From the potato blight epidemic in Ireland in the 1800s to the Wheat Rust outbreak in the US in the 1950s, they have all had severe economic repercussions.
The rapid advancement in the way we cultivate our crops, to the need to practise a more intensive method of agriculture means that now, more than ever, primary producers and governments must be able to both track and predict the outbreak of pests in their farmlands. The wide area involved, the multiple types of crops and the specific disease that inflicts each of them are areas that require ICT interventions that Agri Tech provides to help find solutions.