For farmers, maintaining healthy and productive crops is more than a matter of pride in their craft — it is their livelihood. Across Europe, however, farmers continue to battle plant diseases that threaten yields, food security, and rural livelihoods.
Historically, crop protection has often relied on chemical treatments and preventive pesticide use. While these approaches can help limit outbreaks, excessive or repeated use of chemical inputs can place pressure on ecosystems, soil health, biodiversity, and water systems. For this reason, European agricultural policy increasingly promotes more sustainable crop protection strategies and a gradual reduction in pesticide reliance.
As agriculture moves toward more sustainable practices, researchers are focusing on early detection, biological solutions, and precision technologies that allow farmers to intervene earlier and more effectively — often before diseases spread across entire fields.
One EU-funded project working toward this goal is POMATO, which focuses on protecting two of Europe’s most important crops: potatoes and tomatoes.
Protecting potatoes and tomatoes
Among the most widely consumed crops worldwide, potatoes and tomatoes are essential for both agriculture and food security. However, they are highly vulnerable to destructive bacterial pathogens. Two of the most concerning are Ralstonia solanacearum, responsible for bacterial wilt, and Clavibacter sepedonicus, which causes ring rot in potatoes.
These pathogens can cause severe crop losses and are classified as quarantine pests under EU regulation, requiring strict monitoring and control measures.
The EU-funded project POMATO addresses this challenge through a combination of biological research and advanced digital technologies. Its work focuses on several key areas:
• identifying resistance genes in native and wild potato and tomato varieties
• developing AI-supported early detection tools and predictive digital platforms
• testing nature-based biological control solutions
• validating integrated pest management strategies under real field conditions
Together, these innovations aim to reduce the spread of bacterial diseases while supporting more sustainable crop protection practices.
Exploring synergies between AgRibot and POMATO
The two projects focus on different aspects of agricultural innovation, however, both POMATO and AgRibot are aimed at improving crop monitoring and enabling earlier detection of plant health issues through advanced technologies.
One of POMATO’s key developments is an AI-based early detection system designed to identify potential disease outbreaks in potato and tomato crops. By analysing imagery collected from multispectral drone monitoring and satellite observations, the system can detect subtle changes in plant health that may indicate the presence of bacterial pathogens.
This approach aligns closely with AgRibot’s work on sensor-driven crop monitoring and AI-supported analysis of field data. Within AgRibot, robotic platforms equipped with advanced sensors collect detailed information on crop conditions, helping farmers better understand plant development and field variability.
Together, these technologies demonstrate how AI-powered monitoring can enable earlier detection of crop stress and disease, allowing farmers to respond faster and apply targeted interventions instead of broad chemical treatments.
Strength in numbers
Synergies between EU-funded projects play an important role in strengthening the impact of research and innovation. Through our synergy with POMATO, we hope to exchange knowledge and align our technological developments.
Bringing together plant health research and advanced agricultural technologies,project like these help farmers better prevent disease outbreaks, protect yields, and support long-term agricultural sustainability.
Read more about POMATO at pomato.eu