Controlling crop pest with a farming awareness based integrated approach and optimal control

TL;DR

This paper develops a mathematical model for crop pest control that incorporates farming awareness and integrated pest management, using optimal control to minimize pesticide use and environmental impact.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mathematical model combining awareness-driven pest control with integrated methods and applies optimal control to optimize pesticide application.

Findings

Awareness significantly reduces pest populations.

Integrated control methods are more cost-effective.

Optimal control minimizes pesticide use while maintaining crop health.

Abstract

We investigate a mathematical model in crop pest controlling, considering plant biomass, pest, and the effect of farming awareness. The pest population is divided into two compartments: susceptible pests and infected pests. We assume that the growth rate of self-aware people is proportional to the density of susceptible pests existing in the crop arena. Impacts of awareness are modeled through the usual mass action term and a saturated term. It is further assumed that self-aware people will adopt chemical and biological control methods, namely integrated pest management. Bio-pesticides are costly and require a long-term process, expensive to impose. However, if chemical pesticides are introduced in the farming system along with bio-pesticides, the process will be faster as well as cost-effective. Also, farming knowledge is equally important. In this article, a mathematical model is derived for controlling crop pests through an awareness-based integrated approach. In order to reduce the negative effects of pesticides, we apply optimal control theory.