Sean Yokomizo of Davis, Calif.-based InnerPlant demonstrates the technique during a field day at Peterson Farms Seed in southeastern North Dakota. Photo: Sabrina Halvorson/Hoosier Ag Today.
It sounds like agricultural bioscience technology straight out of a science fiction movie!
An agricultural technology company called InnerPlant has developed a new technology that uses satellites and drones to pick up signals from corn and soybean plants, alerting farmers to stress before it actually manifests in the plants.
The company, based in Davis, California, near Sacramento, says its new crop technology emits specific light signals when plants are stressed by pathogen attack such as fungal infection.
Sean Yokomizo, Inner Plant's vice president of communications, said those signals become visible from satellites weeks before any stress becomes visible to the human eye at the field level.
He explained that plants mount immune responses just like humans do, and react at a molecular level when they're stressed. InnerPlant tracks those molecular sites and inserts additional DNA that causes the plant to produce a fluorescent protein when it responds to a particular stress, a fluorescence that can be detected from space.
Sean Yokomizo of Davis, Calif.-based InnerPlant demonstrates the technique during a field day at Peterson Farms Seed in southeastern North Dakota. Photo: Sabrina Halvorson/Hoosier Ag Today.
“What's great is that because it's tied to the plant's immune response, it detects stress very early — it starts to emit signals within 24 hours of infection or stress, four to six weeks before they're detectable in the field,” Yokomizo said.
Agronomists can use that data to treat individual plants that are stressed – meaning they only treat the plants that need it, spot problems early, and use fewer chemicals with precise treatments. Yokomizo says that while the technology can collect large amounts of data, farmers don't have to sift through reams of unnecessary information to get the data they need.
“We've designed this system to be very transparent: it's in the seed, the farmer knows what to do with the seed. They plant it, they grow it, and we provide recommendations based on the signals,” he said. “There's a huge amount of data moving behind the scenes, but we're giving farmers an easy-to-use, simple tool that shows them early action.”
Yokomizo said early action is a key factor.
“Knowing your house is on fire is great, but wouldn't it be better to know there's smoke coming from your kitchen and you need to do something about it now? And that's the loop we're trying to close for farmers – giving them early, actionable information so they can act before damage is done and preserve their yields.”
For more information, visit InnerPlant.com.
