With no way of knowing when pathogens are in the air, farmers are forced to spray pesticides prophylactically. Root Applied Sciences' pathogen monitoring system enables farmers to spray at just the right time, resulting in a 20-70 percent reduction in pesticide use.
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Sarah Placella
Sarah Placella founded Root Applied Sciences after realizing that farmers struggle to get decision-critical information for pathogen management. She applies techniques she learned as a scientist and researcher to provide actionable insights to growers. Placella worked at startups in biotech and agtech before starting Root. She has a bachelor's degree in earth and planetary sciences from Johns Hopkins University, a Ph.D. in soil microbial ecology from UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral experience at Michigan State and INRAE, a national research institute in France.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Right now, farmers have no way of knowing when crop-threatening pathogens are in the air—pathogens that are even less predictable with climate change. They are forced to apply prophylactic pesticides or risk losing their crops. Many grape producers spray regularly for months just to control one pathogen, incurring significant material and labor costs. Even with prophylactic sprays, 40 percent of crops are lost annually to pests and disease because farmers don’t have good information on where or when there is risk.
Technology Vision
Root Applied Sciences' fully automated, autonomous pathogen monitoring devices will continuously collect particles from the air and run a DNA-based analysis quantifying the pathogens present. Each sensor in the network will upload these insights to the cloud and automatically notify farmers of risks to their crops with ample time to respond and prevent losses. Additionally, a web portal shows pathogen pressure spatially and temporally with comparisons to previous years.
Potential for Impact
Root Applied Sciences is helping farmers be more resilient in our changing world, transforming pathogen management in agriculture. Root's technology is applicable to a large variety of airborne pathogens around the world. Farmers worldwide will be using fewer chemicals, with less intensive management and fewer losses, while growing food more sustainably.
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Root Applied Sciences