Today, farmers lack information about disease threats, as there is no way to carry out early diagnosis of the potential diseases that already exist in the soil and surrounding environment.

Without this information, the most common practice is to minimise all threats, regardless of whether they exist, by the blanket, widespread application of “wide spectrum” chemical pesticides. However, these methods fail to eliminate all the pathogens effectively, increase production costs and it’s environmentally harmful. 

Furthermore, chemical pesticides have a negative impact on the quality of the soil: they reduce soil biodiversity which is vital for the production of optimal yields. 
If the current status quo continues, soil quality will fall, disease resistance and prevalence will increase, and crop productivity will fall, just when it needs to be increased in order to feed the World’s growing population.