The Brief University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences team will use artificial intelligence and drone technology to detect early blight disease in celery fields. Researchers will develop a model to pinpoint exactly where early blight disease is forming. As the nation’s third-leading producer of celery, Florida’s celery fields are valuable crops in the winter but susceptible to early blight disease, which can lead to costly losses. University of Florida researchers are working on a way to get ahead of it. What we know:Specialized drones are flying high to fight disease in South Florida’s celery fields.