Digital eyes in the field: Smart pest surveillance for farmers: Review

Abstract

Pest and disease surveillance remains central to crop productivity and food security. Manual methods like scouting and traditional traps are laborious, time-intensive, and susceptible to error, often causing delayed interventions and excessive pesticide usage. Rapid strides in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and remote sensing are enabling real-time, predictive, and integrated pest management solutions. This review covers the technological advances, benefits, adoption barriers, policy implications, and future research directions in smart pest surveillance—especially contextualized for Indian agriculture.