Automatic System for Data Collection (ASDC)
Monitoring system for locust control in Central Asia and the Caucuses
Description
The Automatic System for Data Collection (ASDC) visualized data for locust control based on standardized chrono-, geo- and taxo- referenced locust field data and transmissions to the “Caucasus and Central Asia Locust Management System” (CCALM) operating through the Geographic Information System (GIS). ASDC provides visualized data in two forms to users: a Locust Survey Form and a Spray Monitoring Form, allowing national field observers to quickly report sightings or infestations of locusts in the field. Users can also view data on past or current infestations. Both forms allow the user to specify whether they are reporting or monitoring eggs, hoppers, adults or swarms, the specific species, including the three main pests affecting the region: the Italian Locust (CIT), the Moroccan Locust (DMA) and the Migratory Locust (LMI), and the country, region and type of vegetation. The Spray Monitoring Form also asks for weather conditions, spray applications, how the applications were made and the type of protection used. The app then uses a web server to report locust data to CCALM, which can only be done if the device has been authorized by scanning a QR code provided by CCALM.
Technology
The application can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for most Android devices, and is operable in English, Russian and nine national languages (Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, Dari, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen and Uzbek). The app uses smartphone GPS to pinpoint the user’s location when filling out the forms, allowing the app to show previously surveyed areas or to accurately map the current areas from three points within the site. It then collects the data on a Google Maps-based map that is stored on a web server. The app uses remote sensing and satellite data to track the areas and fields from which the data are collected.
Target
The main users of ASDC are locust experts in Central Asia and the Caucuses who have been provided access to the app through a QR code provided by CCALM.
Business model
The app is free for anyone with an Android device that has access to the Google Play Store to download, while reporting and accessing data requires the user to scan a QR code provided by CCALM.
Impact
ASDC was first implemented in Georgia and Armenia, but its scope has now been expanded to cover all ten of the CCA countries. As of 30 September 2021, more than 5000 reports have been submitted by 133 users from ten CCA countries (compared to the 4285 reports submitted by 100 users in eight countries in 2020). According to the most recent Workshop on Locust Data Analysis, Forecast and Reporting in Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) in February 2022, 234 reports were uploaded during a locust survey, and 242 reports during control operations in the Baghlan, Balkh, Kunduz, Samangan and Takhar provinces in Afghanistan. In Azerbaijan, ASDC was used to carry out a locust survey of 99 043 ha (64 percent of the entire surveyed area) and during control operations on 17 813 ha (60 percent), resulting in the submission of 1302 Survey Forms and 298 Spray Monitoring Forms to the CCALM database. In the Russian Federation, 764 ASDC reports were submitted in 2021, resulting mostly from survey operations of 228 490 ha in the Saratov, Orenburg and Volgograd oblasts and the Stavropol territory, either from tablets or smartphones. More specifically, 288 ASDC reports were submitted related to 14 590 ha using 12 tablets in 12 districts of the Saratov oblast; 62 reports on 23 760 ha using three tablets in three districts of the Stavropol Territory; 54 reports on 2280 ha in three districts of the Orenburg oblast; and 360 ASDC reports on 187 860 ha using 30 smartphones in 25 districts of the Volgograd oblast. In Georgia, locust experts submitted 488 reports during a locust survey and 1046 during treatments, and stated that using ASDC and CCALM made it “easy to get information on locust surveys, to operatively react to complex situations and to prepare a plan for control operations and to carry out treatments. This provided savings in time.” ASDC is being introduced in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. FAO has delivered tablets to all five countries, and training courses were conducted in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in 2022.
Partners
JICA; USAID; FAO-Türkiye Partnership Programme
Four Betters
Better production
Better environment
