Accelerating adoption of species-agnostic plant sensors for precision farming

Precision farming is an optimized management farming scheme that seeks to link the real-time needs of crops with the nutrients to be administered. Sensing platforms that can monitor the physiological status of crops in situ are key to enabling timely and localized interventions. However, the underdevelopment of plant sensing strategies limits the potential of precision farming. In this Review, we discuss the challenges and advancements in phyto-monitoring, focusing on strategies that are applicable to a wide range of plant species and suitable for field deployment. We explore species-agnostic sensors, including optical and electrochemical sensors, whose operation is based on principles that are widely applicable to all plant species. These platforms enable real-time monitoring of the physiological state of crops by assessing key biomarkers, such as plant hormones, and metabolites such as salicylic acid and reactive oxygen species. Evaluating these systems, we conclude that an integrative sensing approach is necessary to compensate for the limitations of the individual methods and can provide a holistic view of crop health. Cost-effective species-agnostic sensors are thus needed to provide information that can be used to minimize the resource footprint of farming and meet the growing global demand. Species-agnostic plant sensors can monitor the physiological health of a broad range of crops, which is vital for the implementation of precision farming. Here, we evaluate the different sensors in terms of their effectiveness and propose an integrated sensing approach.