Farmers can now look beneath the soil with development of new tool

A new tool developed by scientists at the University of Manchester will allow farmers to see under the soil to check how efficiently crop roots are using water and nutrients.

Its developers say the research could have a strong impact on food security - the subject of a raft of policy consultations by the government yesterday.

Dr Bruce Grieve from the Syngenta Sensors University Innovation Centre said: "Climate change means that the ability to rapidly identify varieties tolerant to drought and other stresses is going to be critical to breeding the food crops of tomorrow. Our technology will help do that."

Chief Government Scientist Professor John Beddington recently visited the project.

Dr Grieve added: "These subsoil sensor systems are novel but founded upon established low-cost body scanner technologies, which exploit the bending of electrical fields within the subject. This new tool will not simply provide a picture of the size and shape of the root structure but rather a non-destructive, quantified and real-time indication of how well they function.

"Current indicators of ’plant vigour’ are often based on loosely related features which maybe straightforward to examine, such as an additional ear of corn on a maize plant, but labour intensive and lacking in direct linkage to the required crop features."