Plant disease monitoring using social media
A successful disease-monitoring campaign run on Twitter
A report has been published outlining a successful disease-monitoring campaign that was run on social media channel Twitter.
Twitter was used to monitor corn and soybean diseases in the USA during 2016 and 2017 as part of a campaign to involve crop scouts, farmers, educators, and agricultural advisors in disease data sharing.
The purpose was to explore the feasibility of providing farmers and crop consultants with an easily accessible, user-friendly, no-cost platform for sharing disease observations with rapid information transfer and early warning capabilities.
The campaign successfully helped track the movement of southern rust (caused by Puccinia polysora) of corn northward, allowing for advanced notice for scouting efforts.
The campaign indicates the potential for representatives from across a wide variety of agricultural sectors to contribute to a plant disease monitoring system using a common social media engine.