Abstract

Agriculture in twenty first century has the biggest challenge of feeding the burgeoning population on the earth with efficient utilization of resources and without causing further environmental degradation. Climate change, pollution and degradation of resources due to improper use is making it more challenging. Increasing and sustaining agricultural productivity remains the utmost focus. Achieving such targets need concerted efforts starting from constant improvement in the crop genetics as well as improvement in the management practices. Plant health management is the key pillar for achieving this goal. Manual observations are mostly used for such things which are not only subjective but also tedious, trivial, imprecise and require skills. Most importantly, they can not be used for large area or precision or intensive farming. Therefore, modern technologies like geospatial technologies (remote sensing and geographic information system), information technology and internet of things, can play a major role in bridging this crucial gap. These approaches have the potential to provide information about different soil, atmosphere and plant parameters which can be analyzed to make appropriate management decisions. These methods are objective, cost-effective, rapid, repeatable and reliable. They can provide precise information over a large area which are otherwise very difficult to get. Acquisition of information along with their synergistic analysis for developing proper management strategies forms the base for a new era of plant health management. Considering the potential of these modern technologies, it would be proper to say that they can bring a paradigm shift in the way plant health is being managed, thereby achieving the trinity of higher productivity as well as resource use efficiency and minimum environmental footprint.