A new mobile app being developed to help identify and locate disease, pests and weeds could transform crop management.

The award winning “seeCrop” app will allow growers to identify specific areas of their field that need treating rather than the whole crop.

Using satellite technology, developers want to integrate the data with precision farming software to create targeted treatment plans.

Produced by Intelligent Precision Farming (IPF), the app will enable farmers to synchronise their field observations with software back in the office to create a variable rate chemical prescription for each field.

Max Dafforn from IPF says it represents a real breakthrough in targeted applications as well as disease and pest forecasting.

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“In the future, aggregated data from app users could show regional variations in disease and pest pressures as they develop – information which is not currently available in the UK,” he explains.

The app has recently been crowned 2014 UK champion of the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC), winning £5,000 and further support in helping futute development.

Tim Just, head of space at Innovate UK, one of the companies involved in the competition, says the award could help fast-track the app on to farm.

“Innovate UK is committed to investing £46m in the agri-tech sector and “seeCrop” will be part of this programme to harness the power of space to create value across the UK economy.”