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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
Enhancement Grants - Special Projects |
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Project Title:
Development of the RiceScout iPhone app to improve rice insect/arthropod, disease, weed and nutritional deficiency diagnostics in southern rice IPM programs. |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: LA Lead Organization: Louisiana State University AgCenter |
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Cooperating State(s):
Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas |
| Undesignated Funding: $24,981 |
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Start Date: Apr-01-2011 End Date: Mar-31-2012 |
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Pests Involved: rice insects, diseases, weeds, nutritional deficie |
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Site/Commodity: rice, southern rice production region |
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Area of Emphasis: integrated pest management decision tool |
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Summary:
This project proposes to build on the development of the Online Louisiana rice insect identification guide (www.lsuagcenter.com/ricepestguide) and an LSU AgCenter weed seedling identification publication, by creating a comprehensive iPhone app for rice field diagnostics, called RiceScout . The RiceScout app will teach IPM users about nutritional deficiencies and pest (weed, insect, disease) biology, monitoring and management. It will serve as a mobile tool to improve accuracy of identification and encourage adoption of IPM techniques and strategies in southern rice production. Mobile devices are rapidly being adopted by farmers, who spend very little time at the desk and are inherently curious early-adopters of mobile technology advances, particularly if these tools will improve their bottom line. The RiceScout app will be a mobile tool that can be used in the field to aid in the identification of common primary and secondary insect, disease, weed and nutritional deficiency problems in southern rice production. Additionally, the RiceScout app will include pictures and information about common stored grain pests of rice. The guide will begin with a main menu that will give the user the option to run a crop symptom and/or insect, weed, disease or nutritional deficiency problem through a diagnostic key. Alternatively, the user can open a virtual flip guide containing images, descriptions, and lifecycle information for all the common primary and secondary insect, disease, weed and nutritional deficiencies that impact rice in the southern US. The RiceScout app will be distributed through the iTunes store. The iTunes store encourages ratings and commentary from users. User feedback will be used to evaluate the utility of the app and improve future editions. Furthermore, an advisory board has been assembled to guide the development of this app. Board members include rice producers, consultants, county agents, and industry representatives from across the US. This project is supported by USA Rice, Louisiana rice growers association, Louisiana agricultural county agents association, Louisiana agricultural consultants association, Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, rice farmers in LA, AR, and IL. This project is submitted as a capstone proposal because it will build on the development of the Online Louisiana rice insect identification guide which was supported by a series of grants from the Louisiana Rice Research Board to PI Hummel. The online guide was developed in response to a suggestion from an Evangeline Parish rice farmer who expressed a need for a mobile identification guide that could be used on a hand-held device in the field to improve the speed and accuracy of insect identification. The online id guide (launched in November 2010) has been extremely well-received by producers. Due to the positive response from producers and consultants, we developed the concept for the RiceScout app to expand in-field diagnostic tools for mobile devices, such as smartphones. Improved access to diagnostic tools and recommendations should improve the adoption of integrated pest management practices in the southern rice producing region.
Objectives: Develop the RiceScout iPhone app as a comprehensive mobile pest (arthropods, weed, disease) and nutritional deficiency identification and decision tool for use in southern rice production. After completion of this project, annual subscription fees will be used to update the app and program iPad and Android applications. Starting with the iPhone is logical because it currently has the largest portion of the smartphone market in the US. |
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