Tillage farmers and potato growers could soon be using a nanosensor the size of a phone SIM card to find disease in their crops and save money on pesticides.

More than €1m in research funding from the Department of Agriculture has been earmarked for Teagasc researcher Dr Ewen Mullins and colleagues, to develop a high-tech gadget to identify disease levels in barley and potatoes.

Mullins is developing a prototype nanosensor which can be used in the field to detect rhynchosporium in barley and potato virus Y (PVY) in seed potatoes.

The nanosensor will be housed in a handheld cartridge measuring about an inch square. The farmer will take a leaf sample from their barley crop and crush it. Liquid from the crushed leaf will drop on the nanosensor, where a chemical reaction will occur that will show whether the crop is diseased or not. It will also indicate whether the level of infection is mild, moderate or severe.

Potato growers will be able to take a skin scraping or core sample from a seed potato and determine the presence of PVY using the nanosensor.

“The idea is that farmers can use their pesticides in a smarter, more strategic way, based on the presence and level of disease, rather than simply applying chemicals based on growth stage or by the calendar,” explained Mullins.

Barley growers spend more than €13.8 on protecting their crops every year.

The reseacher added that the aim was to create a quick and easy way for farmers to diagnose disease in a crop, reduce pesticide cost and preserve chemistries under threat from increasing regulation.

Mullins added that the technology could also be used to compile a national database of disease.

He hopes to have a prototype nanosensor developed by May 2017 and field testing complete within four years.

He is working alongside Prof Richard O’Kennedy from Dublin City University and Dr Alan O’Riordan from the Tyndall Institute in University College Cork.