Optimised Detection and Control of Potato Blight: Sensing Pathogens to Inform Smart Spray Decisions

通过可持续集约化农业来维持全球粮食安全是一个公认的全球问题，有效管理植物病害对农业用地的生产性种植至关重要。马铃薯是全球第三大粮食作物，晚疫病防治是一项重大挑战，估计每年损失35亿GB。在英国，仅疾病控制一项，该行业平均每年就要花费5500万英镑。该项目旨在展示一种新的原型设备，它将在田间对致病疫霉(晚疫病菌)和链格孢菌(Alternaria)的气传孢子进行采样，自动处理样本，通过荧光对DNA进行量化，并通过手机短信传递结果。其目的是改进目前基于天气的疾病风险模型和对晚疫病的预测，从而提高种植者在选择和使用杀菌剂方面的决策能力，从而更有效地利用资源。

The maintenance of global food security, mediated by sustainable intensification of agriculture, is a recognised global issue and the effective management of plant disease is critical to productive cropping of agricultural land. Potato is the third most important food crop globally, with late blight control being a major challenge estimated to cost £3.5billion in losses per annum. In the UK, disease control alone costs £55M per annum on average to the industry. This project seeks to demonstrate a new prototype device that will sample airborne spores of P. infestans (the cause of late blight) and Alternaria species (the cause of early blight) in the field, automatically process the sample, quantify DNA by fluorescence and relay results by mobile phone text message. The aim is to improve current weather-based disease risk models and predictions for late blight, resulting in enhanced decision making ability for growers with respect to fungicide choice and application and therefore more efficient resource use.