The UK produces 14Mt of wheat annually (worth £18B), relying on nitrogen (N) fertilizer, though only 40-60% is utilized by crops. This inefficiency leads to environmental damage, rising costs, and regulatory changes, compounded by climate change. Improving N-use efficiency, such as through biologicals that aid uptake, is crucial. FA Bio will screen at least 50 fungi from their microbial library using innovative ML and bioinformatic algorithms. The best candidates will be fermented, formulated, and tested in glasshouse trials to assess their impact on nutrient-use efficiency and crop yield. Top performers will be scaled-up and tested in field trials with a granular formulation. This project brings together expertise in microbial discovery/isolation/culturing and product fermentation/formulation (FA Bio), phenotyping/glasshouse trials/project management/knowledge exchange (UK ATC) and plant root phenomics (UON). Through this project, the partners will deliver: * Bioproduct that increases nitrogen use efficiency of wheat plants, reducing reliance on synthetic fertilizers. * Increasing yields of English cereal growers and reducing agriculture's carbon footprint (up to 30% displacement of chemical fertilizers). * Know-how/protocol development for monitoring root structures in response to bioproducts, including new techniques in the field. * Engagement with farmers/agronomists/stakeholders via advisory panel, and through attendance at industry events

Wheat is one of the most commercially important crops in the UK, but yield is greatly constrained by fungal diseases and insect pests. The cereal aphids _Rhopalosiphum_ _padi_ and _Sitobion avenae_ are major pests of wheat and cause yield losses through direct feeding on crops and transmission of viruses including BYDV and CYDV. This can cause large economic losses, e.g. BYDV would cost the UK wheat industry £136M per year if left untreated. Current control methods rely on synthetic chemical pesticides, but with regulatory constraints and increasing levels of resistance, new solutions are urgently needed. This project aims to identify fungal strains that have activity against both insect and fungal pests. It will build on existing work being done by FA-Bio to develop novel biofungicides, by developing a dual-action biofungicide and bioinsecticide to target pests and diseases in UK cereals. A dual-action product would have significant benefits for farmers including reducing the costs associated with multiple applications of chemical pesticides, reducing mechanical damage from repeated spray applications and reducing crop yield losses. This project will carry out laboratory trials to identify fungal strains that cause mortality in _R. padi_ and _S. avenae_ which also have biofungicidal activity. The ability to scale-up production of these fungi will also be tested as will their shelf life properties, to ensure they are compatible with current industry production standards. The most promising fungal isolates from lab-based trials will be used in glasshouse trials to test their efficacy against aphids on wheat in a controlled environment. Following this, fungal isolates will be tested in field trials for their ability to protect wheat from insect pests (_R .padi_ and _S. avenae_) and fungal diseases (such as take-all and Fusarium head blight). Following these experiments, the best performing isolates will be selected for commercialisation.

"FungiAlert is developing game changing technology within agritech that will increase agricultural productivity and sustainability through the development of disruptive in-the-field sensors. The objective of this project is to create a new product and make soil-health analysis more accessible to growers. The new offerings would ultimately allow growers to make informed agronomy decisions to mitigate crop loss due to crop disease. This would have a huge impact on the UK economy, as crop diseases within the UK can account for losses of up £2.4bn per year, highlighting the need for disruptive technologies to promote soil-health analysis, for increased crop yields. To date, FungiAlert has developed the first early detection device for fungal plant diseases from soil and water. Other soil-health diagnostic methods offer post-symptomatic identification of the disease. This late diagnosis is not always useful, as once the disease is symptomatic, the treatment is not efficient and crop losses are inevitable. FungiAlert's technology can be described as the smoke detector for farmers, since it alerts the user about the risk of infection before the disease spreads and causes devastating losses. FungiAlert's current technology detects fungal and oomycetal pathogens, however, the market is also demanding a product than can simultaneously detect multiple types of microorganisms within one sensor (i.e. fungi, oomycetes and bacteria). This is due to existing devastating bacterial diseases in agriculture, such as as _Xylella fastidiosa_ which is destroying grape and olive crops in Europe and is threatening the oak trees in the UK (Ian Cox, Innovate UK blog 2018). Like personalised-medicine, different species of plant pathogens have different susceptibility to pesticides, therefore, there is a need to precisely identify the species of disease, in order to tailor pest management strategies. Currently, FungiAlert offers a genomic approach to identify the species of diseases detected by the sensors. The new proposed sensor will have a wider detection scope, therefore, there is a need for a cost efficient metagenomic approach. This would provide soil-health analysis of the microbial community at the point of sampling in the field, this would be game-changing for agriculture, as it would help guide key agricultural decisions (rotational decisions, variety selection, crop protection strategies, harvest time etc.). This project would allow FungiAlert to offer game changing and cost efficient technology for soil-health analysis, revolutionising agricultural practices, and increasing crop productivity and promoting sustainable farming."

FungiAlert is an in-field, early detection device for plant disease in soil and water. It can be described as the smoke detector for farmers, since it alerts the user about the risk of infection before the disease spreads and destroys the entire field. The user simply places the device into the soil or water irrigation system, and they will be alerted to the presence of destructive plant pathogens, allowing them to take timely remedial action, preventing the spread of the pathogen to the rest of the field. FungiAlert aims to increase crop yields, whilst also allowing for evidence based spraying, to ultimately reduce the amount of pesticides in our food chain. The FungiAlert device will help the user to tailor their disease management practices, helping to increase their yields, while reducing their production costs. The guided use of pesticides by precision farming (such as FungiAlert) could also contribute towards reducing the chance of diseases developing resistance to pesticides. The project aims to adapt our current technology (soil sensing) for the detection of spores in both soil and water. Furthermore, the project will also explore the feasibility of different strategies for including wireless remote sensing technology, which would allow for data collection and storage of information relating to the presence of disease. We envisage that our technology could be integrated into farming practices around the world, allowing farmers and growers to understand the health of the soil within their fields at all times, in an affordable and intuitive way.