UMinho: Pretecht helps farmers anticipate risks

Innovation allows farmers to anticipate ecological imbalances, avoid crop losses, reduce chemicals and have more sustainable practices.

The project is called PRETECHT. It’s a spin-off from the University of Minho to take science to the market.

The technology was developed at UMinho by Joana Castro, an expert in molecular biology and data science, with the management partnership of Carlos Pinto, forestry engineer and project manager.

This innovation allows farmers anticipate ecological imbalances and thus avoid crop lossesin addition to reduce chemicals and follow more sustainable practices.

Analyzes in an integrated way the ecosystem microbiomesusing next-generation genomic sequencing, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence.

This new approach allows farmers to obtain more complete and reliable recommendationspromoting productivity, reduced resource use and regenerative agricultural production.

PRETECHT has applications in sectors such as precision agriculture, agri-food, environment and scientific research, explains the statement.