Dr. Sivalingam Elayabalan is the Technical Director / Agriculture Scientist at Sankar Bio-Tech in Hosur, Tamilnadu. His interests are on Agricultural Biotechnology (Plant cell, Tissue culture and Molecular Plant Virology); AI technology for banana pest and disease detection; Mass production of bioinoculants and plant cell line development; Promotion of organic banana cultivation; Import and Export of planting materials ,fruits .
Banana (Musa spp.) is grown across the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, in small, medium, and large-scale settings. It is both a staple food and a source of income for millions of small-scale farmers in developing countries. Worldwide, numerous diseases and pests affect banana production. Novel and rapid methods for the timely detection of pests and diseases can/will guide surveillance strategies and have control measures applied in a more targeted and timely manner. As Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) has been successfully used in various fields, it has freshly moved in the domain of just-in-time crop disease detection.