Job 1 · Pest and disease alerts
Early warning for paddy pests
Warnings based on the weather, for the two plots, using only rules from official sources. This draft shows how it will work. No warnings are shown yet.
Job 1
Which pests and diseases matter here
These are the main paddy pests and diseases that research and official advice name for Koraput and Odisha. Each row says what weather suits it, and when farmers are told to act. The numbers in square brackets link to the sources at the bottom (who's who).
| Pest or disease | Evidence from Koraput and Odisha | Weather that suits it | Act when you see this in the field |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow stem borer Insect (moth caterpillar) | A serious pest of rice in Koraput [5]. Dried white rice heads caused by stem borer were seen in pest-control trials in Koraput [6]. It is on the rice institute's October 2024 Koraput watch list [4]. | A week with: day high 31–34 °C; night low 22–23 °C; morning humidity 89–92%; rain 0–10 mm; 6–9 hours of sunshine a day. If more than 3 of these 5 are true, many moths are likely. This rule was worked out for Raipur, Chhattisgarh, the nearest of the seven places where the pest centre studied it. [1] | 4–5 male moths caught per pheromone trap [3] |
| Gall midge Insect (small fly) | A serious pest of rice in Koraput [5]. | A week with: day high 31–34 °C; night low 20–23 °C; morning humidity 89–93%; rain under 10 mm; 8–9 hours of sunshine a day. More than 3 of 5 true = high risk. This rule was worked out for Raipur, Chhattisgarh, the nearest of the seven places where the pest centre studied it. [1] | As soon as the first damage is seen. No count is given [3] |
| Leaf folder Insect (moth caterpillar) | A moderate pest in Koraput [5]. On the rice institute's October 2024 Koraput watch list [4]. | The same weekly weather as stem borer, at Raipur. [1] | Two folded leaves per clump of plants [3] |
| Brown planthopper Insect (small sap-sucking bug) | A moderate pest in Koraput [5]. | A week with: average temperature 22–28 °C; average humidity 60–80%; rain under 25 mm; 8–9 hours of sunshine a day; wind 0–5 km/h. This rule was worked out for Raipur, Chhattisgarh, the nearest of the seven places where the pest centre studied it. The pest centre also notes that very humid air (above 85%) helped it build up. [1] | 5–10 hoppers per clump of plants [3] |
| Blast Fungus disease | The rice institute's October 2024 Koraput advice warned the weather may suit blast [4]. | Night temperature 22–28 °C; humidity above 95%; dew; leaves wet for more than 10 hours; cloudy or drizzly weather; a lot of nitrogen fertiliser in the soil. Most dangerous at the seedling stage, when new shoots form, and when the rice heads come out. [2] | On leaves: 3–5 spots per leaf. On the neck of the rice head: 2–5 sick plants per square metre [2] |
| Sheath blight Fungus disease | Named in the rice institute's fortnightly advice for all of Odisha [3]. | 28–32 °C with very humid air among the plants (85–100%); a lot of nitrogen fertiliser; a thick crop. Worst in the rainy season. [7] | Act when it is seen on 1–2 shoots [3] |
| Bacterial leaf blight Bacterial disease | In the rice institute's October 2024 Koraput advice [4]. | 25–34 °C with humidity above 70%. Strong wind and long heavy rain spread it. [8] | As soon as it appears. The rice institute also advises stopping extra nitrogen fertiliser [4] |
Day high and night low are the warmest and coolest temperatures of the day. Humidity is how damp the air is. Technical name: Tmax, Tmin, RH
No warnings yet
The weather rules above were worked out from light-trap counts at Raipur and other places. None has been checked in Koraput's hill climate. FarmBot will not show a risk level for these plots until a rule has been checked against what people find in the fields here. Until then, this page only shows how it will work.
How the warnings will work
From weather to a warning, step by step
1 · Weather
Forecast and recent weather
Hourly temperature, humidity, rain, wind and sunshine for the plots, from a forecast service at first Estimate. These are turned into the weekly values the rules use: day high, night low, morning and evening humidity, weekly rain, and sunshine.
2 · Wet leaves
Hours the leaves stay wet
Blast needs leaves to stay wet for more than 10 hours [2]. Until a leaf-wetness sensor is put in, wet hours are estimated from rain and very damp air, and marked as an estimate.
3 · Crop stage
Crop stage from the satellite
The greenness score, and later a radar satellite, show the crop's stage: transplanting, new shoots forming, rice heads coming out, ripening. Each pest is only checked at the stages when it does damage.
4 · Rules
Count how many conditions are met
For each pest, count how many of the listed weather conditions the coming week meets, as the pest centre's rules do ([1]). More than three of five = high risk. Three = medium risk.
5 · Satellite check
"Less green than expected" flag
Separately, a plot gets a flag when its greenness falls below its own recent trend, or below nearby fields on the same day, at a time when it shouldn't be ripening. The flag means "go and look". It is not a diagnosis. Seen by satellite
6 · On the farm, later
Sensors, traps and cameras
A weather station and a leaf-wetness sensor on the plot will replace the computer estimates. Pheromone traps, with a camera that counts the moths, will give the stem-borer and leaf-folder counts. The rice institute's rule of 4–5 moths per trap needs these counts [3].
Sources
Where the rules come from
- ICAR-NCIPM (NICRA), Web enabled weather based prediction for insect pests of rice
- ICAR-NRRI (CRRI) Technology Bulletin 277, Rice blast disease and its integrated management
- ICAR-NRRI Agro-Advisory Service, first fortnight of September 2026
- ICAR-NRRI Agro-Advisory Service, October 2024 (district advisory incl. Koraput)
- Samir et al., J. Biopesticides 17(2):135–143 (2024), pest management in Koraput
- ICAR-IIRR, Demonstration of IPM practices in farmers' fields of Odisha (incl. Koraput)
- IRRI Rice Knowledge Bank, Sheath blight
- IRRI Rice Knowledge Bank, Bacterial blight
- IMD Agromet Advisory Services, district advisories