author(s)
H Ravisankar, U Sreedhar and N Srinivasa Rao

abstract
Insect pests are one of the major constraints in tobacco crop production resulting in substantial losses. An accurate and rapid diagnosis can help to take up appropriate and timely corrective measures to minimize the yield losses. Web based expert system on insect pests of tobacco, identification, damage symptoms and their management was developed using an online tool “Agridaksh”. The system was developed using ontology based method for identification and management of insect pests and the database was designed in a tree structure. A knowledge model has been created in such a way that includes knowledge acquisition, problem identification and a knowledge retrieval system for tobacco insect pests. This system can be accessed at any location and point of time by the users through user friendly menus and inference engine using Internet. This will be useful to enhance the capacity of tobacco farmers, extension personnel and crop development agencies for effective pest management leading to increased yield and improved quality of tobacco.