Farm monitoring app 'seeCrop' wins U.K. award
A new arable mobile phone app designed to pinpoint pests and disease in crops has won the U.K. leg of the European Satellite Navigation Competition. 
The 'seeCrop' app was developed by British firm Intelligent Precision Farming (IPF) and allows farmers to locate and identify diseases, pests and weeds within fields. It then integrates the data using precision farming software to create a targeted treatment plan.
IPF's technical marketing manager Max Dafforn, says the app saves money, time and unnecessary applications.
"Winning the ESNC is great news for IPF and UK arable farmers. Input from farmers has identified a need for this product, which once developed will have wide reaching economic and environmental benefits," he says in a release.
"This funding and business support will allow us to accelerate the development of seeCrop, allowing farmers to realise the benefits sooner.
"In future, aggregated data from app users could show regional variations in disease and pest pressures as they develop. This app therefore represents a real breakthrough in targeted applications as well as disease and pest forecasting."
As the British winner, IPF will receive extensive business support from the Satellite Application Catapult, Innovate UK, the UK Space Agency, the European Space Agency and Marks and Clerk, an international firm of patent and trademark attorneys, as well as a £5,000 (US$7,928) prize fund.
When farmers need to rid crops of disease, pest or weed, they typically treat an entire field with a crop protection chemical even if the problem is only found in a specific area.
With the help of the seeCrop app, farmers can record the precise location and type of disease, pest or weed that is causing the problem and the software packages a bespoke plan of treatment including chemical prescriptions across a single field using spray equipment with in-built GPS receivers to adjust the rate of inputs automatically depending on where the tractor is in the field.
"We know this app is going to have a huge impact on the UK arable sector and could revolutionise how crop protection products are applied. Now thanks to the ESNC we get the chance to develop it, Dafforn added.
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