Real-time data collection and mapping of yellow rust

Wheat is a crop of great importance for human nutrition around the world. Due to climate change, the Puccinia striiformis tritici (Pst), the fungus that causes yellow rust on wheat, has developed the ability to overcome the plant's defenses. The spores of the fungus spread by aerial dispersal and can reach thousands of kilometers.

Consequently, the rust disease is transboundary and must therefore be dealt with internationally. Around the world, there are several institutions (CIMMYT, ICARDA, GRRC) and initiatives (RustWatch, RustTracker, Globalrust) committed to solving this problem by improving disease diagnostic tools, building new online research and communication infrastructures to share knowledge.

InPP's Crop Protection and Monitoring and Diagnostics Departments are working together, and in collaboration with RustWatch, to fill gaps in the data on the epidemiology of yellow rust, in order to understand the special dynamics of the disease and build an early warning system (EWS).

The form developed by InPP for ODK Collect makes it easier for producers to collect data in the field.

The Monitoring and Diagnostics Department has developed a form for a mobile application (ODK Collect), through which wheat growers can easily collect data in the field. This information will be fed in real time into a spatial database and a map of sampling sites, published from a webGIS service ad hoc.

To this end, we are also instructing producers on how to use the application and access the maps from the webGIS service. Paulo Velez, from Cersul - Agrupamento de Produtores de Cereais do Sul, was the first to receive the training. Thank you very much for your participation!

See one teaser of our tutorial for accessing app and forms here.