Periodic Reporting for period 4 - IPM Decisions (Stepping-up IPM decision support for crop protection)
Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2024-05-31
Farming must address the key challenge of increasing production of affordable food to meet global demand, whilst minimising environmental impacts. Crops affected by invertebrate pests, weeds or diseases (collectively ‘pests’) are less productive and plant protection products pose an environmental hazard. IPM Decisions has accelerated uptake of computer-based systems to support decisions by farmers and advisers on Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Increased uptake of Decision Support Systems (DSS) should lead to improved decisions making on the farm, which would result in improved timing and targeting of plant protection products, and their integration with non-chemical methods of pest control. This should ultimately lead to a reduction in the application of plant protection products (and potentially also fertilisers) with a consequent benefit for society in terms of reduced diffuse pollution and reduced environmental harm.
Project Aim: Increase the impact of decision support systems for integrated pest management.
Objective 1: Increase user access to, and uptake of, IPM DSS
Objective 2: Quantify the benefits of using DSS
Objective 3: Foster DSS innovation through the Platform, to secure longevity of impact
DSS cover a diverse range of decision tools including pest monitoring and treatment thresholds, forecasting pest density and damage, and systems for comparing treatment options; all of which can support implementation of IPM. We are addressing constraints on DSS use by creating a pan-European DSS Platform and associated ‘IPM Decisions Network’; the latter forming a community of DSS users and wider IPM stakeholders. The Platform is a web-based framework on which models/DSS for farmers and advisers, and tools to help evaluate, modify or construct DSS can be run. To bring about the behavioural changes needed for IPM to be implemented more fully, the project is using insights from the interactions with stakeholders to guide Platform design.
The functionality required to integrate priority DSS with the Platform ensures general applicability of the Platform for DSS addressing many key crops and pests.
Uptake and impact from the project is driven by accelerating innovation and delivering economic advantage to users:
• Farmers and advisers - gain a simple ‘one-stop shop’ to find and run DSS
• Applied researchers or advisors - gain ability to adopt DSS developed in other countries and test/compare them for their regional conditions.
• Researchers - gain ability to adapt decision models to their regional conditions and rapidly evaluate the effect of the changes.
• DSS Developers - gain a ‘shop window’ to access more end users, and resources to accelerate DSS innovation.
Conclusion
The project has created an online IPM Decisions Platform, facilitated open access, and consultation of DSS for improving IPM strategies across Europe. The platform provides default weather data to run models, and is adaptable to enable integration of new DSS, and enable external platforms to use weather and DSS resources from IPM Decisions.
Alongside creation of the platform, incentives and barriers to uptake have been identified, and processes for overcoming barriers have been initiated.
Increased uptake of Decision Support Systems (DSS) should lead to improved decisions making on the farm, which would result in improved timing and targeting of plant protection products, and their integration with non-chemical methods of pest control. This should ultimately lead to a reduction in the application of plant protection products (and potentially also fertilisers) with a consequent benefit for society in terms of reduced diffuse pollution and reduced environmental harm.
Project Aim: Increase the impact of decision support systems for integrated pest management.
Objective 1: Increase user access to, and uptake of, IPM DSS
Objective 2: Quantify the benefits of using DSS
Objective 3: Foster DSS innovation through the Platform, to secure longevity of impact
DSS cover a diverse range of decision tools including pest monitoring and treatment thresholds, forecasting pest density and damage, and systems for comparing treatment options; all of which can support implementation of IPM. We are addressing constraints on DSS use by creating a pan-European DSS Platform and associated ‘IPM Decisions Network’; the latter forming a community of DSS users and wider IPM stakeholders. The Platform is a web-based framework on which models/DSS for farmers and advisers, and tools to help evaluate, modify or construct DSS can be run. To bring about the behavioural changes needed for IPM to be implemented more fully, the project is using insights from the interactions with stakeholders to guide Platform design.
The functionality required to integrate priority DSS with the Platform ensures general applicability of the Platform for DSS addressing many key crops and pests.
Uptake and impact from the project is driven by accelerating innovation and delivering economic advantage to users:
• Farmers and advisers - gain a simple ‘one-stop shop’ to find and run DSS
• Applied researchers or advisors - gain ability to adopt DSS developed in other countries and test/compare them for their regional conditions.
• Researchers - gain ability to adapt decision models to their regional conditions and rapidly evaluate the effect of the changes.
• DSS Developers - gain a ‘shop window’ to access more end users, and resources to accelerate DSS innovation.
Conclusion
The project has created an online IPM Decisions Platform, facilitated open access, and consultation of DSS for improving IPM strategies across Europe. The platform provides default weather data to run models, and is adaptable to enable integration of new DSS, and enable external platforms to use weather and DSS resources from IPM Decisions.
Alongside creation of the platform, incentives and barriers to uptake have been identified, and processes for overcoming barriers have been initiated.
Ensuring the platform delivers what users need:
Stakeholder workshops and questionnaires have confirmed the constraints on DSS uptake identified in the proposal are widespread across Europe. Some key differences between potential users were identified, differing by country and by type of user (farmers, adviser or researcher). Differences between users are being addressed by designing specific ‘dashboards’ for each user type. Findings from stakeholder workshops and questionnaires are feeding back directly into the platform design, and have been published.
Building the platform:
A catalogue of IPM DSS has defined the inputs and outputs which the platform interface needs to support. Four levels of interaction between DSS and the platform have been defined to suit different types of DSS. Application programming interfaces (APIs) have been developed to enable communications between the DSS and the platform.
Three Dashboards have been built:
1) Use Dashboard – enables farmers and advisers to find and run IPM DSS relevant to their crops and pest pressures.
2) Comparison Dashboard – enables comparisons of risk outputs from two or more DSS
3) Adaptation Dashboard – enables researchers and DSS providers to adapt them to their local circumstances.
An IPM Decisions DSS Factory has been created, providing researchers and developers with a simple route for DSS creation and integration into the IPM Decisions Platform.
Suitable sources of weather data and/or metadata have been identified/generated, along with the software for DSS to access them. APIs have been created and made freely accessible to enable wider integrations between IPM Decisions and other DSS providers.
Enabling testing and evaluation of IPM DSS:
Testing of DSS usually involves comparing predictions of pest risk against observational data of pest prevalence. However, predictive value does not necessarily translate into economic return and farmers are more likely to use a DSS if there is evidence for improved economics. Large losses for a low frequency of false negative predictions can outweigh many small gains from true predictions. Methods have been developed for economic analysis of DSS and are being applied to a set of contrasting pest/crop systems. To enable this analysis, data sets of pest observations and weather across many sites and seasons have been obtained, and the results of analysis have been published. along with methods for evaluating the value of DSS outputs.
By the end of the project, users were creating accounts in IPM Decisions platform from across Europe.
Stakeholder workshops and questionnaires have confirmed the constraints on DSS uptake identified in the proposal are widespread across Europe. Some key differences between potential users were identified, differing by country and by type of user (farmers, adviser or researcher). Differences between users are being addressed by designing specific ‘dashboards’ for each user type. Findings from stakeholder workshops and questionnaires are feeding back directly into the platform design, and have been published.
Building the platform:
A catalogue of IPM DSS has defined the inputs and outputs which the platform interface needs to support. Four levels of interaction between DSS and the platform have been defined to suit different types of DSS. Application programming interfaces (APIs) have been developed to enable communications between the DSS and the platform.
Three Dashboards have been built:
1) Use Dashboard – enables farmers and advisers to find and run IPM DSS relevant to their crops and pest pressures.
2) Comparison Dashboard – enables comparisons of risk outputs from two or more DSS
3) Adaptation Dashboard – enables researchers and DSS providers to adapt them to their local circumstances.
An IPM Decisions DSS Factory has been created, providing researchers and developers with a simple route for DSS creation and integration into the IPM Decisions Platform.
Suitable sources of weather data and/or metadata have been identified/generated, along with the software for DSS to access them. APIs have been created and made freely accessible to enable wider integrations between IPM Decisions and other DSS providers.
Enabling testing and evaluation of IPM DSS:
Testing of DSS usually involves comparing predictions of pest risk against observational data of pest prevalence. However, predictive value does not necessarily translate into economic return and farmers are more likely to use a DSS if there is evidence for improved economics. Large losses for a low frequency of false negative predictions can outweigh many small gains from true predictions. Methods have been developed for economic analysis of DSS and are being applied to a set of contrasting pest/crop systems. To enable this analysis, data sets of pest observations and weather across many sites and seasons have been obtained, and the results of analysis have been published. along with methods for evaluating the value of DSS outputs.
By the end of the project, users were creating accounts in IPM Decisions platform from across Europe.
The ambition is to move towards no pesticide waste, with optimal pest management and targeting of treatments. Trust in DSS is a key requirement to achieve this as the economic risks inherent in pest management decisions are high.
We are built trust by:
• A community approach, engaging DSS stakeholders through the IPM Decisions Network
• Transparency of information
• Understanding user attitudes to decision support
• Choice of DSS available through the Platform and Dashboards
• Providing reliable sources of data to drive DSS, through the Platform
• Evaluation and comparison of DSS benefits, explicitly accounting for risk
The project has expanded current knowledge through:
• Surveying a wide range of users across Europe regarding their attitudes to the use of DSS, enabling comparison of barriers and incentives between regions, sectors and socioeconomic groups.
• Produced a comparison of DSS that considers benefits in terms of reduction of inputs and economic benefit to farmers
• Creating a catalogue of DSS, summarizing system requirements and outputs.
• Launching an IPM Advisor tool, connecting users with relevant DSS for their needs
The IPM Decisions Platform is the first pan-European ‘click and go’ marketplace for IPM DSS and the data to run them. New products and services will be stimulated through:
• Development of new DSS, either by combining or adapting existing systems on the Platform, or de novo generation of new systems.
• Provision of remote and in-crop sensing equipment and services, linked to DSS.
• Integration of DSS into farm management software.
We are built trust by:
• A community approach, engaging DSS stakeholders through the IPM Decisions Network
• Transparency of information
• Understanding user attitudes to decision support
• Choice of DSS available through the Platform and Dashboards
• Providing reliable sources of data to drive DSS, through the Platform
• Evaluation and comparison of DSS benefits, explicitly accounting for risk
The project has expanded current knowledge through:
• Surveying a wide range of users across Europe regarding their attitudes to the use of DSS, enabling comparison of barriers and incentives between regions, sectors and socioeconomic groups.
• Produced a comparison of DSS that considers benefits in terms of reduction of inputs and economic benefit to farmers
• Creating a catalogue of DSS, summarizing system requirements and outputs.
• Launching an IPM Advisor tool, connecting users with relevant DSS for their needs
The IPM Decisions Platform is the first pan-European ‘click and go’ marketplace for IPM DSS and the data to run them. New products and services will be stimulated through:
• Development of new DSS, either by combining or adapting existing systems on the Platform, or de novo generation of new systems.
• Provision of remote and in-crop sensing equipment and services, linked to DSS.
• Integration of DSS into farm management software.