On-site diagnostics can be used alongside decision support systems and agronomic expertise by providing direct evidence of pathogen presence or absence. Used alongside existing decision support tools, or where DSS information is unavailable or insufficient, these diagnostics could support more informed, targeted and timely disease management decisions.
Fungal diseases are among the greatest constraints on yields in agriculture globally, a challenge likely to be intensified by climate change and the increasing prevalence of fungicide-resistant populations. Worldwide, growers are estimated to lose 10-23% of crops to fungal diseases before harvest, with a further 10-20% lost after harvest, losses which are equivalent to enough food to feed between 600 million and 4 billion people annually (Fisher et al., 2012). In the UK, Septoria tritici blotch, a major disease of wheat, is estimated to cost the sector £110 to £220 million annually through yield losses and fungicide inputs (Fones et al., 2015).
Fungicides are widely used to control fungal diseases, but their use carries significant risk to human and environmental health (Cirillo et al., 2021; Geiger et al., 2010). A proportion of pesticide applications are lost through spray drift and runoff (Llorens et al., 2010; Damak et al., 2016), reducing application efficiency and contributing to environmental contamination. Pesticide residues can persist in the environment, depending on the active substance and environmental conditions. For example, courgettes were recalled in Belgium in 2026 after detection of the banned herbicide heptachlor at levels above the maximum residue limits believed to have originated from historic heptachlor contamination in the soil, despite the chemical having been placed under restrictions and subsequently banned in the EU in the early 1980s (VRT NEWS, 2026; European Commission, 1983).