Precision farming technologies for crop protection: A meta-analysis

Precision farming technologies (PFTs) can have a significant impact on reducing the dependency on plant protection products (PPP) for crop protection. PFTs for crop protection comprises an extensive suite of digital solutions that can be used to predict, detect, and control pests. In this paper, we report the results of a systematic literature meta-analysis to map PFTs in relation to crop protection and identify trends and gaps in the use of these technologies in order for them to be easily adopted by farmers. In total, 239 different research articles were assessed in terms of sensor, platform, crop, pest, pest management stage, and impact type. The majority of research articles focused on arable crops and on weed management. The identified PFTs can achieve up to 97 % savings in herbicides, reduce the area that needs insecticide application by up to 70 %, and reduce weed densities by 89 %. In the future, high resolutions images and proximal sensing with heterogeneous robotic systems is expected to make pest detection and control more efficient.