Imagine being able to diagnose crop issues using your cell phone. That was Guelph PhD student Riley McConachie’s vision, leading him to develop WheatScanR.
The free mobile app allows users to take photos of their wheat and get feedback on whether the crop is infected with Fusarium head blight (FHB), one of the most common fungal diseases affecting wheat production.
“A big issue in wheat is Fusarium head blight, and in our breeding program here, we really focus on breeding for resistance to the disease. But the way that you have to actually gauge that resistance is by just quickly looking at little plots out in the field and just estimating the degree of infection within each one,” said McConachie.
