Russian Agriculture Minister Reviews Plant Disease Detection System Prototype

Researchers at Stavropol State Agrarian University are developing a robotic system designed to identify plant diseases and pests at early stages. A working prototype has already been built, and Russia’s agriculture minister Oksana Lut recently reviewed the project.

The initiative is part of the Nauchniy tsentr mirovogo urovnya “Agroinzheneriya budushchego” (World-Class Research Center “Future Agroengineering”), with strong backing from agribusiness companies.

The system is built around a robotic platform that moves between rows of plants in greenhouses, capturing images. These images are transmitted in real time to a processing system, where a neural network analyzes the data and generates diagnostic assessments.

A key feature is that the algorithm has been developed in-house by the university. This allows it to be adapted to different plant varieties grown in Russia. The approach is designed to improve diagnostic accuracy, speed up responses to risks, and turn crop monitoring into a continuous and repeatable process.