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Agricultural technology, agri-tech or agritech, describes the use of technology in agriculture, aquaculture and horticulture to help improve efficiency, yield and profitability. The Agricultural Engineering Precision Innovation Centre (Agri-EPI Centre) is one of four agri-tech centres established by the UK Government. Agri-EPI Centre focuses on the delivery of research, development, demonstration and training on precision agriculture and engineering for the livestock, arable, horticulture and aquaculture sectors.

Kayleigh Breen joins Agri-EPI Centre as Agricultural Laboratory Technician

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Agri-EPI has recently hired an Agricultural Laboratory Technician to join their technical team. Kayleigh Breen comes from an academic background in Applied Bioscience and Forensics and previously worked in science-based roles for over 5 years. These were based largely in the pharmaceutical industry at companies such as AMRI and Sartorius and extended to Covid-19 testing during the pandemic.

Kayleigh’s role is helping to develop the current laboratory and technical facilities which are based in Agri-EPI’s Northern Agri-Tech Hub using existing instrumentation or bringing in new equipment where required. Some instrumentation already in place includes the Voice200 Syft Mass Spectrometer capable of highly sensitive, selective and non-discriminatory semi/ volatile organic compound analysis of air, water and soil samples, the TA.XT Plus 100C Texture Analyser capable of analysing various food, soil and animal feed samples for things such as consistency and shearing resistance, and also the NIRFlex N-500 FT-NIR Spectrometer used to analyse food, beverage and animal feed samples for moisture, macronutrients and protein content.

Her aim is to provide in-house and on-site testing of various sample types depending on project and partner requirements, such as soil, water and air samples, extending to animal products such as wool or faecal sample analysis.

Kayleigh said:

“This will be a substantial undertaking, but I am looking forward to the challenge and am keen to transform the lab into something that will actively benefit the business and projects moving forward.”

Tackling Ash Dieback Disease with agri-tech

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Ash Dieback Disease (ADD) is a destructive disease of Ash trees, especially England’s native Ash species, that threatens forestry productivity and biodiversity in the UK. ADD was first detected in the UK in 2012 and is forecast to eventually kill 80% of UK ash trees, at a predicted cost of £15bn, with £7.6 billion being the estimate for the next 10years (Hill et al., 2019).

As one of England’s most useful and versatile native tree species, Ash provides an important commercial revenue stream to Ash growers who produce Ash across the UK. Ash timber is strong, durable, and flexible, with a wide range of practical uses such as tool handles, flooring, furniture, and joinery. Ash provides valuable habitat for a wide range of dependent species. It grows in a variety of soils and climatic conditions. The ‘airy’ nature of its foliage allows light to penetrate to the woodland floor, encouraging ground plants and fauna. Several insects, other invertebrates, lichens, and mosses depend wholly on Ash for habitat.

A collaborative project between Agri-EPI Centre and Vertinetik will use emerging technology to develop predictive models of ADD and other tree diseases, which can be integrated with decision support systems to inform management of England’s Ash trees. The project aims to provide an affordable solution to benefit smaller woodland owners in identifying disease infestations and taking proactive intervention measures to protect the economic and ecological value of Ash trees.

Kalique Dugarte, Co-founder of Vertinetik said:

“We are living through a period of climate crisis. Farmers and woodland owners sit at the front row among those having to experience it first. Changing weather patterns and alien invasive pests and diseases all represent new challenges to the preservation of woodlands. The severity of this challenge can be illustrated by Ash dieback and how an entire native tree species is under threat. So there is a call for action.”

“At Vertinetik, we believe in UAVs as a powerful low-cost alternative to the massification of technologies previously available to big budgets. Thanks to our project we will lower frictional costs to facilitate the mapping and monitoring of ash trees, record the state of the trees, and thus help farmers and woodland owners better manage ash dieback and plan routes to recovery and restoration of trees.”

On 6th June, Agri-EPI will host an online workshop in collaboration with Vertinetik about their project aimed at tackling the devastating impact of Ash dieback disease.

The workshop will provide the opportunity to brainstorm solutions that meet the needs of woodlands owners and learn more about the aims of the project. Speakers, including Kalique Dugarte, Kadmiel Maseyk and Joseph Fennell from Open University, and Simon James from Smallwoods, will provide an overview of the nature of the disease, the use of remote sensing for disease and stress detection, and the challenges of managing woodland areas affected by Ash Dieback.

Find out more here.

Automation and robotics for agriculture at Agri-EPI Centre

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Agri-EPI, the centre for precision innovation in farming, is a first choice for agri-tech developers, from start-ups right through to established companies, to help with creating robust and commercially viable agricultural solutions.

Our team believes that it is vital that new agricultural technologies are both relevant and robust, build on well described initial design goals created from a strong understanding of the needs of farmers and their operations. If that is not done, then there will be delays in the development of the product and eventually quality, which will have ongoing negative effects on the trust of farmers in the product. Short testing cycles compound that problem, so the data used to design and build the systems needs to be of very high quality.

Our offer
Agri-EPI offers a wide-ranging set of facilities, equipment, and services. Our farm network is a key part of this, enabling the testing spaces and long-term interaction with farmers which we rely upon. Within the engineering team, we support the farm network and projects through our data engineering, data analysis and robotics specialisms.

Key resources include:

  • Multi-modal agricultural data
  • Spectral imaging and sensing
  • Agricultural data analysis
  • System simulation
  • Development / Robotic platforms
  • Data and robotics in agriculture consulting

Find out more here:

Engineering R&D brochure

Agri-EPI Centre announces agreement to develop agri-tech with Morocco

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Agri-EPI Centre has announced a significant agreement with Morocco’s agri-innovation agency to develop agri-tech innovation.

Agri-EPI, the precision farming specialists, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the agency, Pôle Digital de l’Agriculture, at SIAM, Morocco’s international agriculture exhibition, at which the United Kingdom is guest of honour.

The MOU commits both parties to work together to identify the main challenges facing farming in Morocco and align potential UK agri-innovations and collaborations to resolve them. The parties will facilitate mutual market access for agri-tech testing and provision, and identify opportunities for research and development, including on-farm trials.

SIAM is taking place in Meknes from 2-7 May, with Agri-EPI Centre and members and collaborators, Continental Engineering, Alvatech and the University of Bedfordshire demonstrating their technology and taking part in panel sessions on water scarcity, agri-tech and machinery, and research and development. Agri-EPI Centre is on a pavilion hosted by the Department of Business and Trade Team from the British Embassy in Morocco.

Jane Lycett, Agri-EPI Centre international business development manager, said:

“The scope for the UK and Morocco to address critical challenges for sustainable food production is enormous, and we are looking forward greatly to working with our colleagues at the Pôle Digital.

“The SIAM event is an excellent platform to showcase the UK’s world-leading agri-tech developments to Morocco and to the many other countries represented there. Morocco’s appetite for agricultural innovation and technology development is huge. The Agri-EPI Centre staff, members and collaborators attending SIAM have greatly beneficial expertise in crop technology, water management and irrigation.”

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

 

According to the MOU, Agri-EPI Centre and the Pôle Digital de l’Agriculture will:

· Work together to identify the main challenges facing the agriculture sector in Morocco. Align potential UK agri-tech solutions and facilitate UK/Morocco collaborations to address these.

· Facilitate Moroccan agri-tech providers UK market-entry through accessing Agri EPI Centre’s facilities, expertise, networks and wider UK business support mechanisms.

· Seek to address any barriers to the adoption of agri-tech in Morocco. Support UK companies to collaborate in-country to trial, test and adapt relevant agri-technologies to suit the specific challenges and farming systems. Demonstrate their impact to showcase the benefits of agri-tech adoption to the wider farming community.

· Jointly assist those operating in the Moroccan agri-tech ecosystem to identify R&D collaboration and commercial opportunities in the UK.

· Through working with Pôle Digital, identify key collaborators in the Moroccan agri-tech ‘ecosystem’ – including industry bodies, academia, centres of excellence, research institutes and farmers – with an interest in, and infrastructure in place, to conduct on-farm trials and participate in collaborations with agri-technology companies.

 

For more information on SIAM, please visit: SIAM 15th Edition 2023 | International Exhibition of Agriculture in Morocco (salon-agriculture.ma)

Agri-EPI network explores the importance of soil health

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Agri-EPI Centre hosted a member community online special interest group titled Exploring the importance of soil health, that brought farmers and tech developers from across the agri-tech sector together online to discuss the value of soil health and soil sampling and opportunities for the use of technology to improve soils and performance.

The event was chaired by Claire Hodge, Head of Agri-Tech (Crops) at Agri-EPI Centre, and discussions were led by Kelsey Daly, student at Agri-EPI Centre, Andrew Francis, Co-Founder at Team AG UK, and Jake Freestone, Farm Manager at Overbury Farms.

Kelsey Daly began the conversation with an overview of the soils questionnaire that was handed out to the farmers in Agri-EPI’s innovation farm network. Many farmers reported that their soils had improved in recent years and that they were taking actions such as implementing mixed farming practices and reducing fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides to aid in this improvement. Recommendations emerges such as a greater emphasis on research into reliable carbon sampling, the creation of compatible tech platforms for collection and storage of data and the development of a soil mapping platform.

Andrew Francis then discussed the need for a faster pace in delivering these technologies. He dove into the evolution of farming practices from historical physical samples, soil pits and manual and observational practices, to current remote sensing, soil and yield mapping practices, to future robots, drones, satellites, automation, modelled data and plant monitoring.

“The industry needs underpinning with a fast-learning model.”

Jake Freestone, one of our innovation farmers, discussed the importance of soil health on farm from a farmer’s perspective. On his farm, Jake works with 3 types of soil and each one has different characteristics and management needs. He explained that soil is at the heart of everything they do as farmers, no matter what kind of farm or what sector they work in.

“Soil is a hugely living organism which needs to be treated with a huge amount of respect”.

“The time for experimentation needs to be now”.

Discussion followed, where a number of questions were posed from the audience, and an array of thought-provoking answers were shared. A main takeaway was the huge number of opportunities available around soil health. Agri-EPI’s focus is finding the right opportunities and exploring them with our network and farmers to make sure the sector continues to deliver successful solutions for sustainable and innovative food production.

 

Questions included:

What would you need to help you speed up the regeneration of your soils?

Is there any need to reduce the cost or increase the density (time and space) of soil sampling?

What impact do you think healthier soils has had on yields and costs?

Discussing testing, do you test for microbiology and soil food web too?

Do you have a definition of regenerative farming in relation to soil? Do you think regenerative farming is possible?

What are the Carbon opportunities for the future?

Where do you see the future of organic fertiliser (solid and liquid)?

Precision farmer explores innovation in viticulture

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Ian Beecher-Jones, co-owner of JoJo’s Vineyard in Oxfordshire, has been a precision farming adviser for several years and is part of Agri-EPI Centre’s innovation farm network. At JoJo’s Vineyard, he is growing 6 different varieties of grapes to make still and sparkling wine and incorporates agri-tech at every level possible to enhance efficiency, sustainability and productivity.

JoJo’s vineyard is situated in the Chiltern Hills, near Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire. At the vineyard, Ian utilises the latest technology from drones, robots, satellites and data, which helps the team at JoJo’s make the best grapes possible.

There are many great traditions in vine growing that shouldn’t be lost. Ian explains that blending in new technology alongside the traditions will create an opportunity for vineyards in the UK to produce a product suited for the next new world in a sustainable way.

Ian said:

“We’re excited to be working with Agri-EPI to explore the opportunities for JoJo’s and the rest of the UK vineyards. The UK viticulture sector is on an incredibly upward journey, but we have to be aware of producing wine in the most efficient and sustainable way.”

Ian, in collaboration with Agri-EPI and robotics technology company, Antobot, has recently embarked on two projects at JoJo’s vineyard, one to create a vineyard digital infrastructure map, and the other for on-the-ground monitoring using the Antobot robot.

The mapping tool, developed with the Collabriculture project in South Australia, aims to create a shareable, digital infrastructure map of the vineyard’s rows and boundaries. The map can then be shared with any ag tech companies wishing to work with vineyards around the world. The model is the foundation on which drones, robots and vehicles can plan navigation paths before arriving on site, avoiding time wastage from surveying. This will improve the efficiency of data gathering services on farm.

Ian has described it as a contextualisation map as it gives context to all the other digital data maps that are generated on the vineyard.

“If I can’t overlay my rows and blocks on the satellite, drone or robot generated maps I get back, I can’t identify exactly where the variation is.”

“It is the share-ability of the digital infrastructure that is key to establishing a reliable and trustworthy data platform we can all work from. Once established we can share it with a range of ag-tech companies who see the benefits and opportunities of working with one of the fastest growing crops sectors in the country.”

“The exciting aspect about this project is the global potential to remove cost for growers and speed up the time it takes to engage with ag-technology companies whether they are providing drone, robot, satellite or software services. We are all working from the same infrastructure data.”

Vineyards are an ideal environment to work in since the pathways between the rows create a roadway for robots to travel. The robots are fitted with high level GPS and LIDAR systems to help them navigate around the vineyard.

The robots at JoJo’s will carry cameras and sensing equipment to monitor and analyse the vines and grapes as they grow during the year. Gathering data is a time consuming task. Robots and drones will speed that up.

 

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