Rapid, accurate diagnosis of nutrient and health status of growing plants to enable prescription fertiliser

Current fertilizer usage is not environmentally sustainable and generates high financial cost for the farmers. It is currently difficult to assess nutrient deficiencies in growing plants in a precise and timely manner. AgriOptimizer aims to address this problem by using the plant’s molecular signature as a way to precisely determine plant health issues at an early stage and create a fertiliser with a bespoke prescription. AgriOptimizer service can also be used as a testing platform to asses general plant health status under treatments with new agrochemical products.
The team includes Dr Pawel Mikulski, a post-doc at John Innes Centre (JIC) with 10 years of expertise in molecular profiling, and Dr Jonathan Clarke, Head of Business Development at JIC with a strong track record in supporting spin-outs.
Dr Mikulski says: “Healthy plants and those with a disease or nutrient deficiency have well-defined distinguishable molecular signatures. Our test would build on this knowledge, identifying how the plant growth is being impacted and providing a prescription for optimising its performance.”