I-Corps: Commercialization of Portable Sensor for Crop Disease Detection

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

Vegetative farmers who own an average size farm spend tens of thousands of dollars each year on pesticide and fungicide as preventive measure that costs about $210/acre and needs several applications through the seasons. Minimizing the pesticide usage through less frequent 'on-demand application' and/or selective application on the huge crop field could minimize unnecessary sprayings and provide huge environmental and economic benefits for vegetative farmers. Currently used methods for disease detection in agricultural crops are time consuming, destructive, demand skilled analysts, require a laboratory set-up and unfortunately do not offer either real time monitoring or on-field deployment possibilities. A rapid, real-time, non-destructive, ex-situ method for early detection of infections will help crop producers to contain the infection, prevent the spread of disease and hence avoid colossal damage. In this project, the team has developed a novel enzyme-nanomaterial composite based sensor platform for highly selective detection of diseases in crops and post-harvest produce. The fundamental science developed in this project involves the development of amperometric biosensors based on enzyme-nanomaterial composite for highly selective detection of methyl salicylate, an allelochemical released by plants and plant parts during pathogenic fungal infections. The proposed innovation will directly benefit three different customer segments in the agricultural, food processing and handling industry. At an estimated cost of a few thousand dollars, a crop producer with mid-size farm could save tens of thousands of dollars over a period of a year on unnecessary preventive sprayings. At only a few dollars per test, food quality and safety inspectors could identify spoilage and save millions of dollars in food damage.