Punjab farmers may cut cotton acreage despite artificial intelligence-driven project to control pest attacks
2025-04-19 11:14:12
Punjab Farmers May Slash Cotton Acreage Despite AI Pest Control Project
Cotton acreage in Punjab has declined significantly over the years – from 2.68 lakh hectares (lh) in 2018-19 to 0.97 lh in 2024-25
There has been some reduction in cases of pest attacks after a pilot project was launched last season to monitor and control pink bollworm (PBW) infestation in cotton crop in Punjab.
But, the response from farmers is mixed, as some of them have complained that it did not help control PBW. As a result, they suffered losses. However, there is unanimity among them to reduce cotton acreage, partly due to PBW and mainly due to unavailability of water.
“Though the machine helped us get timely alerts, PBW could not be controlled even after spray,” said Beant Singh, a farmer from Sri Muktsar Sahib district. He said they will reduce the area under cotton to 5-6 acres this year from the earlier 15-16 acres, mainly because of PBW and also water problem. He said the yield has dropped significantly, reducing their profit as they are cultivating land on lease.
Significant drop in acreage
On the other hand, Roop Singh from Faridkot district said they are planning to reduce cotton acreage to 6-7 acres from last year’s 15 acres due to water availability, but he praised the government’s pilot project which helped manage PBW and also reduced their expenditure on pesticides.
The area under cotton in Punjab has declined substantially in the last few years – from 2.68 lakh hectares (LH) in 2018-19 to 0.97 LH in 2024-25, resulting in a reduction in production also from 12.22 lakh bales (each of 170 kg) to 2.72 lakh bales. The main reason for the increase in PBW, a highly destructive pest of cotton, is the piling up of cotton crop residues near the fields.
This increases the level of infestation, especially when cotton stalks, closed bolls and lint residues are piled up near agricultural fields, allowing the larvae to survive through diapause and emerge in large numbers during the next crop season.
Pilot evaluation
As per the evaluation of the project results, the implementation helped in significantly improving pest identification, management efficiency and cost-effectiveness compared to conventional methods – reduction in pesticide use by 38.6 per cent while PBW damage was kept under control and yield increased by 18.54 per cent compared to conventional methods, highlighting the potential of Al traps to enhance cotton productivity while reducing chemical dependency.
CICR deployed its own Al-based smart pheromone trap technology to overcome the limitations of conventional traps. The smart trap system comprises a single-board computer, a camera module, a weather sensor and a GSM transmitter, all powered by a solar panel with a rechargeable battery. According to Prasanta Kumar Dash, Assistant Director General of ICAR, a control unit triggers the camera module fixed on the ground at hourly intervals to capture photographs of trapped pests.
Early Warning System
The system optimizes and transmits the combined data (trapping pictures and related weather parameters) to a remote server via a 4G GSM/Wi-Fi module. An Al-powered machine learning algorithm (YOLO) then processes the images, counts the trapped pests, and delivers the analyzed data along with relevant weather information to end users via a mobile or PC application.
By correlating the real-time trappings with weather data, pest dynamics over a wide area can be better understood. This helps in the development of reliable pest early warning systems and improved pest management practices in cotton cultivation, according to the evaluation report of the pilot project. The scientists emphasized that real-time monitoring is essential for devising timely and cost-effective management strategies to control PBW. They said timely pest alerts and advisories to farmers helped in keeping the losses below the economic threshold level (ETL)
