Oct 24, 2024
Parana Starts Soybean Rust Monitoring System for 2024/25
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The state of Parana has the best system of any state in Brazil to monitor the presence of Asian soybean rust in the state. The system called "Rust Allert," is used by farmers, extension personnel, researchers, and students to monitor how the disease is spreading across the state. The heart of the program is a system of spore collectors that can be used to track the amount of rust spores in the air.
The Rust Alert system is operated by the state Department of Agriculture in conjunction with Embrapa research. They have already installed 85 collectors across the state of Parana and eventually there will be 200 collectors. The collectors are simple pieces of plastic pipe with sticky adhesive tape inside that collect any spores as the air blows through the open-ended pipe.
The equipment can detect when the first rust spores appear and it is used to advise farmers when it is the best time to start applying fungicide. The system is also used to advise farmers when the spore count is high enough to justify applying a fungicide treatment. The information is free for producers and a valuable tool to help manage the most important soybean disease.
Producers who utilized the information last growing season applied 35% less fungicide than farmers who did not use the data. A collector in the municipality of Palotina in western Parana has already detected rust spores, which is the earliest since the program was initiated.
Researchers are going to employ artificial intelligence (AI) this growing season to help analyze the number and type of spores collected. AI can analyze the samples much quicker in addition to identifying spores of other potential soybean diseases.