Promoting sustainable pest management through digital decision support tools: Insights from India

Crop pests continue to pose a significant threat to agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability worldwide, especially in smallholder farming systems. The rapid development of digital decision support tools (DDSTs) in recent years provides opportunities to enhance smallholder access to timely and relevant information on sustainable pest management. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of three complementary plant health-related DDSTs—the CABI BioProtection Portal, the Crop Sprayer app and the PlantwisePlus Factsheet app—in promoting sustainable alternatives to synthetic pesticides and in improving smallholder farm performance. We use survey data from nearly 1000 smallholder chilli producers in south India, where the outbreak of the invasive Thrips parvispinus pest is causing severe economic losses and excessive use of synthetic pesticides. Doubly robust methods are used to estimate treatment effects of DDST usage. Results indicate that using the plant health-focused DDSTs is associated with significant increases in farmer knowledge and adoption of environmentally-friendly pest control strategies, such as biopesticides and integrated pest management. Results also suggest that DDST usage is significantly associated with reduced application of synthetic pesticides (albeit not highly hazardous ones) and input cost savings, which translated into increased farm profitability. We show that the positive outcomes are more pronounced for farmers who used the DDSTs on their own with support from agricultural advisors. Our findings suggest that plant health-focused DDSTs can play an important role in achieving recent global commitments on pesticide risk reduction. Assessing the role of DDSTs in promoting sustainable pest management is salient, given that frequent outbreaks of crop pests are causing substantial economic losses and inappropriate use of pesticides, with associated negative health and environmental consequences. Our findings contribute to the literature and policy discussions on sustainable digital transformation of agrifood systems and transition towards low-pesticide agriculture. • Digital decision support tools (DDSTs) are rapidly being developed for on-farm decision-making. • We assess the effectiveness of DDSTs in promoting sustainable pest management in India. • DDSTs enhance smallholder adoption of environmentally-friendly pest control strategies. • They are also associated with reduced synthetic pesticide use and increased farmer profits. • DDSTs can play an important role in achieving environmental sustainability in agriculture.