Electronic noses for plant pest detection
Alien plant pests are a major threat to plant health and safe food production. Plant pests can easily be spread between countries as stowaways on plant material. Only 3 % of the plant pests that are imported this way are detected in import controls. This number could be increased significantly with the help of new sensor technology that detects pests using volatile organic compounds (VOCs). All plants emit VOCs, which can be described as plant odours. The VOC profile, i.e. the composition of the VOCs that the plant emits, changes when the plant is attacked by a pest. Attacks from different pests produce different VOC profiles. This project aims to develop a sensor platform that can recognise the VOC profile from plants infected with five economically important plant pests. The sensor platform will work as an electronic nose that can efficiently sniff out pests. The system will be user friendly and can be used to easily screen a large number of plants for pest attack. It will be a valuable tool for plant importers, nursery owners and forest industry employees to detect and reduce the spread of plant pests infesting plant material. The system can also be utilized by farmers to detect infected plants in the field. This will allow for more targeted pesticide use and thus reduce the need for pesticides.
Plant Pest Prevention through Technology-guided monitoring and site-specific control
Ongoing | 2023-2026
- Main funding source
- Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- France, Germany, Slovakia, Italy, Portugal, Czechia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Great Britain, Switzerland