Davis, California, USA
September 24, 2025
CropVoice™ commercial deployment scaling to over half a million acres in 2026 to take the guesswork out of soybean fungal decisions for farmers across the Midwest
InnerPlant, the seed technology company engineering crops that communicate their needs, today announced the world’s first real-time detection of an early fungal infection in soybeans through its CropVoice™ disease alert network currently deployed across Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.
CropVoice sensors were triggered by a fungal infection in Yankton County, S.D., and northern Cedar County, Neb., and sent out the first-ever disease alert to farmers, indicating that the field was infected. The alert provided affected farmers with confirmation of an infection weeks before symptoms were visible in the field, giving them ample time to take action to protect their yields.
“I knew I was going to spray for white mold, but I wasn’t sure about when,” recalled Dylan Tacke, a Nebraska Agronomy Sales Representative who received one of the historic alerts. “When I got the alert, I knew that it was time, and it was good to have confirmation before putting money down in the field.”
InnerPlant’s network covers 50,000 acres across the Midwest in 2025 and is scaling to over half a million acres in 2026 through resale agreements with key “CropLife 100” agricultural retailers.
“This detection is the first time in the 10,000-year history of agriculture that an infection was detected in real-time and farmers notified of the threat,” pointed out Shely Aronov, CEO and co-founder of InnerPlant. “The value of data that confirms an infection weeks before symptoms are visible in the field fundamentally changes how farmers manage disease and is key to driving the commercial demand we’re seeing to expand the reach of the CropVoice network.”
CropVoice uses InnerSoy™ sensors - soybeans genetically engineered to emit an optical signal when infected - to take the guesswork out of farmers’ disease management decisions by sending real-time alerts via text when an active infection is detected near their fields.
The network is backed by a local field team with over 60 years of combined agronomy experience and eight Ph.D.s spanning functional genomics to infrastructure systems engineering. Once the plants in the network signal, that information is amplified with laboratory analysis, boots-on-the-ground scouting, local agronomic expertise, weather data, and advanced modeling to alert of fungal disease in the network.
“Farming involves a great deal of risk - from weather to insects to disease - and often we lack real-time data to make well-informed decisions,” said Brandon Hunnicutt, a large Nebraska farmer. “CropVoice takes the guesswork out of soybean fungicide decisions by giving a warning of infection early enough to take action and protect yields.”
Farmers can subscribe to the CropVoice network through select local agricultural retailers.
About InnerPlant
InnerPlant is a seed technology company developing novel traits that harness plant physiology and unlock actionable data at scale. The Company’s technology enables the earliest detection of pathogens and other stresses in key crops to make farming more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. By tapping into plants’ immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals detectable from as far away as space when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors. InnerPlant’s first commercial product, CropVoice, was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. The company is backed by leading industry and venture partners, including John Deere, Systemiq Capital, and an alliance of North American farmers via Coutts Agro. For more information, visit innerplant.com
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