Photo: Danny Singh, Monsanto Chair in Soybean Breeding and the principal investigator on one of the new projects funded by the Iowa Soybean Association
The Iowa Soybean Association is funding over $2 million of research at Iowa State University to identify disease signatures to alert farmers of crop stress. The soybean checkoff dollars will allow researchers to use sensor-equipped ground vehicles along with unmanned aerial vehicles to look for signs of diseases such as cyst nematodes, sudden death syndrome, brown stem rot and stem canker. The advanced imaging instruments that detect the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum will be used to develop the signatures to allow identification, differentiation and prediction of diseases. This project represents the continuation of a decades-long relationship between Iowa State and the Iowa Soybean Association that ensures Iowa’s status as the nation’s leader in soybean production. Another new project funded by the association will establish two soybean research and development sites for remote-sensing tools and educational aids for Iowa farmers.
