Measuring crop leaf chemical properties (nutrients) is important for multiple applications: early detection of nutrient deficiencies, phenotyping, and precision agriculture

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded Mississippi State University $591,499 under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) on January 1, 2026, to develop a portable mid-infrared spectroscopy sensor that measures crop leaf chemical properties non-destructively and rapidly for nutrient deficiency detection, phenotyping, and precision agriculture applications. The project established three objectives: determine the optimal spectroscopic method to derive leaf chemical properties, design and develop the sensor, and create a calibration dataset of crop leaf properties and sensor readings for model development. The resulting portable sensor system will scan crop leaves, determine chemical properties in situ, and display results to enable rapid crop nutrient status monitoring for farmers diagnosing nutrient deficiencies, researchers obtaining leaf chemical data for studies, and agronomists providing management recommendations. Performance occurs at Mississippi State University in Mississippi through December 31, 2029.

The state-of-the-art is to use laboratory chemical methods which are costly, labor intensive, destructive, and time-consuming. So that, there is a need to develop a sensor which can sense leaf chemical properties non-destructively and rapidly at a low cost. Mid infrared spectroscopy which uses the interaction of light/radiation with matter to derive different chemical properties, is a promising technique that can be used here due to its rapid and low-cost nature. This project's goal is to use this novel technique to develop a portable crop sensor which can determine the leaf chemical properties in situ accurately. To this end, three objectives are established: (i) determine the best spectroscopic method to derive leaf chemical properties, (II) design and develop the sensor, and (III) develop a calibration data set consisting of crop leaf properties and sensor data to be used for model development. This portable sensor system will be able to scan a crop leaf, determine different chemical properties, and display in situ allowing rapid monitoring of crop nutrient status. Such a devise can serve diverse applications including farmers to early diagnose crop nutrient deficiencies, researchers and agronomists to obtain crop leaf chemical properties as required for different studies and provide management recommendations.