A hand-held device for potato farmers to quickly sample plants and tubers in the field and storage for a wide range of health and quality issues.
That's one of the goals of a research program being led by scientists at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's research centre in New Brunswick.
Researchers from France and New Zealand are also involved.
The federal government is putting 1 point 83 million dollars into the research.
Industry contributors are putting in over 800 thousand.
The research will focus on three major causes of potato yield loss.
They are the spread of the virus PVY by aphids, potato common scab cause by a bacterial disease and a condition in storage called cold sweetening that reduces the dolour quality of potatoes when they are fried.
Federal officials are hoping the research will give Canadian potato farmers a technological edge in predicting and preventing yield losses in their fields and in storage.
