Being able to identify crop problems early can make the difference between saving a crop and losing it, but high-tech solutions can be costly.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers think a new approach leveraging existing technology may be part of the solution. North Carolina State University researchers in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are launching an inexpensive camera system that can monitor crop stress remotely. These low-cost sensors can help researchers studying ways to make agricultural systems more resilient; plant breeders breeding more drought-tolerant varieties; and someday may be able to alert farmers when their fields need to be irrigated.
USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture supports this research. Read complete story by Mollie Rappe.
