After working in the field with New York state growers, Heck, a postdoctoral associate from Brazil working in the lab of Sarah Pethybridge, associate professor of plant pathology and plant-microbe biology, said one challenge was that too many fields needed to be assessed in a short time, and there was a lack of decision-making tools. Using his own research and resources available at Cornell AgriTech, Heck developed the app, called Sampling, as a solution for growers.
We recently asked Heck to share information about the app’s development and benefits.
What problems can this app help growers potentially solve? We want to assist growers in making decisions about when a management practice, such as applying fungicides and pesticides, is needed. Sequential sampling plans for agriculture pests were developed to save time in scouting and assessing for diseases and insects. However, merging these plans with the action thresholds for integrated pest management practices has created a more powerful tool for decision-making. For example, using the new app, the grower will apply a fungicide only if the disease has crossed the action threshold; we define the action threshold as the limit when the cost of control is equal to the damages caused by the disease. The additional benefits include reducing pesticide applications, reducing the cost of crop production, reducing the load of pesticides in the food and environment, and reducing the selection pressure of plant pathogens and insect pests resistant to chemicals.
What research at Cornell AgriTech inspired you most to develop this app?
Most of the algorithms that we developed were based on scientific literature, and from these, Jan Nyrop, director at Cornell AgriTech, is one of the main researchers in the field of sequential sampling. I used many of his published manuscripts to learn and understand this technique and ultimately develop the idea for the Sampling app.
How many diseases can this app be used for sampling?
This is the first version of the app, so for now, we have implemented the sequential sampling plans for the Cercospora leaf spot disease. We developed the app to serve as a repository for sampling plans for multiple diseases and insect pests. We plan to add sampling plans for Stemphylium leaf blight of onions and a few more diseases and insect pests this year. We also have some requests from researchers abroad to incorporate Fusarium wilt of bananas, white mold of soybeans and coffee rust into the app.
