Empowering Farmers through Krishi GK’s Satellite Surveillance – Dr. Priti Sharma
Insect pests and diseases are a major concern in the agricultural production system. They pose a severe threat to food security, trade, and livelihoods globally. Globally, crop losses due to insect pests and diseases are estimated at up to 40% annually (FAO, 2025). Effective monitoring and management techniques are crucial for maximising food production.
Traditional insect pest and disease monitoring methods are labour-intensive, time-consuming, and challenged by the need to cover large areas. Recent technologies such as Remote Sensing play a crucial role in precision agriculture by enabling automated detection, quantification and identification of pests and diseases. Satellite surveillance is emerging as a transformative tool in crop stress detection, offering remote and effective monitoring of various agricultural problems(Saran et al., 2025). The principle of satellite imagery for insect pest or disease detection is based on the distinct spectral signatures that pest- and disease-infested plants show when compared to healthy plants.
Satellite sensors are playing a vital role in revealing early signs of pest/disease stress by analysing different plant vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI, SAVI, GNDVI and NDMI, etc.). These indices change in response to decreased chlorophyll content, altered canopy structure, vegetation cover, photosynthetic activity and moisture content in plants (Zhang et al., 2019). For example, aphid infestations in wheat show lower NDVI values, which helps us to identify hotspots and the monitoring of pest dynamics (Saran et al., 2025).
Platforms like Krishi GK harness these advances to provide farmer-centric advisories, improve agricultural resilience and crop protection.
References
- FAO, 2025. About | Plant Production and Protection | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Saran, S., Hiremath, S. S., Kumar, A., et al. (2025). Remote sensing and automated monitoring systems for insect pest detection and surveillance. Uttar Pradesh Journal of Zoology, 46(2), 155–171.
- Zhang, L., Gao, Y., Zhang, X., Meng, Y., & Chen, Q. (2019). Recent progress on emerging techniques for monitoring and forecasting crop pests and disease. Expert Systems with Applications, 136, 102-123.
