Growers can access accurate and localised data to improve disease management through a project that tracks airborne disease spore movement
A three-year, $3.6 million project is aiming to provide growers and advisors with early detection of diseases, including blackleg, botrytis, leaf blights and spots (alternaria species), cereal powdery mildew and general rust in their crops.
To facilitate this, 60 sensors that capture airborne particles containing fungal spores have been installed across Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
When combined with artificial intelligence approaches, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) says the data from these sensors allow for early alerts as to potential crop infection when spores are microscopic and plants are asymptomatic.
This can provide growers with the opportunity for more informed and timely disease management decisions.
GRDC agriculture technology manager Peter Thompson says that growers are currently reactive to fungal diseases, with detection only possible once disease is visible in crops.
“Growers are already on the back foot once visual symptoms can be scouted by eye,” he says.
“During early infection, spores are microscopic, and plants are asymptomatic, making disease difficult to detect. But at the same time, early infection is the optimal stage to apply fungicides.
“This project is providing more accurate and localised disease risk information for growers, so they can make more informed decisions on when and where to apply foliar fungicides, helping maximise profit from fungicide use and delay the onset of resistance.”
The sensors installed are BioScout SporeScout units and use air sampling to trap fungal spores, which are photographed using an automated microscope.
An AI function then compares these photos to a database of images to detect and identify fungal disease.
Data from the SporeScout units is displayed on BioScout’s online dashboard, with graphs containing the airborne spore concentrations of specific pathogens.
BioScout CEO Lewis Collins says the network sampled nearly 1 billion litres of air over the 2024 season, tracking and reporting on around 1.6 million unseen disease-causing spores in near real-time.
This sampling revealed 1.2 million spores of general alternaria.
“The BioScout powered network is providing a level of unprecedented detail for growers that has not been available before,” Collins says.
The BioScout network is free to grain growers for the next 12 months, and BioScout encourages feedback during this period for further development.
Growers and agronomists can access the network at www.bioscout.com.au/grdc.