Applications of Geospatial Technologies in Plant Health Management

In this chapter, an overview of remote sensing applications for pest management and plant protection is presented. The flow and gaps in the existing organization of plant protection information are highlighted. Methods of integration of remotely sensed data into the conventional plant protection and crop assessment system are addressed. Crop pests and diseases commonly occurring in continuous cropping pattern zones, whose symptoms are amenable to remote sensing, are dealt with. Numerous economically important crop pests/diseases are sporadic in time and space, but they are not included in this chapter. The objective of this chapter is to create basic awareness for the possibility of using remotely sensed data for pest detection and plant protection. This will also enthuse further thinking to make this emerging area of application operational in the years to come.