Objective - To prevent the occurrence of pests in horticultural crops

Objetives

The final goal of VegAlert is to launch in the market the new diagnostic service addressing horticultural crop producers in 24 months

The diagnostic service will integrate the following components:

1

DNA Technology

DNA microarray technology developed by Microgaia (Phytoarray). This analytical tool based DNA array technology can provide quantitative identification for more than 150 different fungal and bacterial pathogen species, selected upon relevance for horticultural crops. Every microarray allows 8 determinations.

2

Easy to use

Easy-to-use sampling kit for sample collection by non-specialist technicians. That’s to say, the crop producers will take the samples themselves. The kit enables the collection from soil, foliar surface, leaves or air (spores).

3

Standard Method

Standardized, easy to use, sampling method to determine the most representative sample points on a case-by-case basis. The sampling method relies on field geophysical and climatic characteristics (either provided by the user or fed on public GIS databases of agronomical interest) plus the dynamic built database constructed with the VegAlert data.

4

2.0 Tool

Online tool to support the end-users (farmers, agronomists at cooperatives, consultants) in making decisions on pest management, establishing not only the sampling collection but also interpretation of the VegAlert data, permitting to the farmers to improve knowledge about phytopathogen prevalence and epidemiology.