Solar-Powered Plant Protection Equipment: Perspective and Prospects

Abstract

The major challenges in sustainable and profitable agriculture are developing high-yielding crop varieties and reducing crop losses. Presently, there are significant crop losses due to weed/bird/insect/animal attacks. Among the various renewable energy sources, solar energy is utilized for different agricultural operations, especially in plant protection applications. Solar photovoltaic (PV) devices present a positive approach to sustainable crop production by reducing crop loss in various ways. This might result in the extensive use of PV devices in the near future. PV-based plant protection equipment/devices are primarily utilized in protecting crops from birds, weeds, or insects. Solar-powered plant protection equipment such as light traps, bird scarers, sprayers, weeders, and fencing are gaining interest due to their lower operational costs, simple design, no fuel requirements, and zero carbon emissions. Most of these PV devices require 12 V rechargeable batteries with different currents to meet the load, which varies from 2 to 1500 W. This paper briefly discusses the applications of solar-powered plant protection devices in sustainable agriculture and their future prospects.

A protocol and training guidelines for mosquito sampling in remote areas with limited power supply

“…Together, these aspects contribute to an improved and more accessible mosquito trapping protocol for resource-limited areas and ultimately improve vector pathological surveillance in areas with limited resources such as electricity. Like many previous attempts at insect trapping with solar-powered devices [ 10 , 11 ], the solar panel allow recharging of the lithium batteries that used to power the fan and lights of traps. However, the practical use of portable solar-powered devices for mosquito trapping is still very new and, to our knowledge, has not been widely reported.…”

“…However, the practical use of portable solar-powered devices for mosquito trapping is still very new and, to our knowledge, has not been widely reported. For example, the solar panels and batteries used in this study were fully portable, allowing staff to move sampling from one location to another, unlike other studies that used passive traps with a static solar station [11] . In addition, this protocol has been tailored to remote areas with limited electricity, where the mosquito samples cannot be stored in an ethanol solution like other insects or animals [ 12 , 13 ] but require a freezer at -20 °C to preserve the nucleic acid content of the pathogen in the vector for further analysis.…”

Mass Trapping Lepidopteran Pests with Light Traps, with Focus on Tortricid Forest Pests: What If?

“…Female budworms captured in LTs are heavier than males: 420 of 424 (99.1%) daily LT samples in 2019 including at least two adults of each sex yielded w♀/n♀ ≥ w♂/n♂. Assuming that only captures of females in LTs contribute to Ē, the intraspecific measure of LTmt performance can be approximated with either the numerical or biomass sex ratio: Ē(n) = n♀/(n♂ + n♀) (16) Ē(w) = w♀/(w♂ + w♀) (17) Consistent with the higher weight of females than males, the estimates Ē(w) are 1.23 times higher than Ē(n), i.e., the number of females represented 21.8% of budworms in LTs relative to 26.7% female biomass (Table 5).…”

“…The research output was low worldwide between 1975 and 2010 Unbeknown to many entomologists, the successful control of Lepidopteran agricultural pests is often achieved with LTs, either to suppress/eradicate isolated populations (the sustained deployment of LTs over multiple generations) [4][5][6] or reduce short-term pest damage by culling populations of reproductive adults (LT-based mass trapping per se, or LT mt ). The commonality of LT mt is highlighted by the large number of field trials testing the approach [7][8][9][10][11], pest management guidelines in multiple crops [12][13][14][15][16][17], and recent deployment of 170 million LT units to control agricultural pests in China [18].…”

Calibration of the Ångström–Prescott Model for Accurately Estimating Solar Radiation Spatial Distribution in Areas with Few Global Solar Radiation Stations: A Case Study of the China Tropical Zone

“…Due to the high cost of instruments and maintenance, the distribution of the Rs observing stations is limited in most regions of the world. Research on the accuracy estimation of Rs is important for agricultural industry development and clean energy utilization [3,4].…”