Improved risk prediction for precision agriculture: automated monitoring of pathogen movement

National survey data show fungicide use on wheat continues to increase despite fluctuations in disease pressure, reaching a 30 year high in 2012 (Defra). Septoria tritici is the most significant foliar disease in UK wheat causing between £43 to 53M in yield losses annually; control is by fungicide application costing £82M annually (GFK Kynetec 2013). Yellow and brown rust are more sporadic but cause significant losses in bad years; control relies on preventative spraying. This cross-disciplinary project proposes a precision agriculture solution, developing a field-based instrument for detecting pathogen ingress into crops and reporting results of pathogen presence into a decision support tool such asCropMonitor in real-time. The proposed instrument will provide growers/agronomists with real-time information on inoculum moving into a crop (rather than symptoms), enabling more effective timing and selection of fungicide application, resulting in better control, increasing yield, and improved environmental stewardship.