To provide diagnostic help to growers and their advisors, the MyCrop team within the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Food has developed a series of Lucid Mobile apps – “to bring crop diagnostics to the paddock”. With funding support from the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the MyCrop series of tools now covers 6 crops – wheat, barley, oats, canola, lupin, and field peas.
As well as incorporating the diagnostic key, the Wheat app also provides other support tools. The following sequence of screen shots from the Wheat app shows the important steps involved during a diagnostic session:
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- Selection of diagnostic clues
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- Remaining potential causes
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- New threats recently added
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- Recent introduced pest
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- Recent introduced pest
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- Reporting screen
As well as providing a diagnostic tool to identify production constraints, the MyCrop apps also provide detailed fact sheets about each constraint, including management options and where to access further information. The apps also include other tools: e.g. the Wheat app includes a Variety Selector to help growers choose appropriate varieties for their Agzone and desired yield and disease risk trait. A Crop Check and Economic calculator tool are also available.To help first-time users, the MyCrop team have developed a tutorial that demonstrates the main features of the Diagnostic key. They have done this by using the key to address a real-life problem. Access the video tutorial here.
Feedback on these tools has been extremely positive with users finding the interface friendly and easy to use. A video with one of the MyCrop Wheat app users can be viewed via the YouTube video below.
MyCrop diagnostic tool website interface
The MyCrop team have also used Lucid to develop a soil identification tool – MySoil. The purpose is to help growers identify the soil type on their farm and to access information about important soil issues with their specific soil type. A tutorial about this tool can be accessed here.