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Agri-EPI network explores the importance of soil health

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)?

Exploring the importance of soil health

Around 6 million hectares of soil in England and Wales are at risk of either erosion or compaction and intensive agriculture has caused arable soils to lose between 40 and 60 percent of their organic carbon (gov.uk). The fertility of soils can be determined by soil analyses, which provide fundamental information on the status of a soil and enable the scheduling of fertiliser, lime and manure applications to maximise production.​ ​

Claire Hodge, Head of Agri-Tech (Crops) at Agri-EPI, said:

There is a need for agri-tech to support the measurement and management of soil health and fertility, and importantly we see a role for agri-tech to help farmers make better decisions on their soil health day by day. Our aim is to use real time soil analysis and quality data to understand changing farming systems and environmental conditions.”

Agri-EPI Centre released a questionnaire to their network of innovation farmers to obtain a greater understanding of the soils they work with and to steer future decisions about adopting new technology on farm. The questionnaire covered a wide range of topics all relating to the management of the soil on the farms. It was clear from the farmers’ responses that they are interested in improving their soil and understanding how they can produce crops and grass from their soil with the minimum number of inputs being used.

Regenerative agriculture has recently received significant attention from producers, farmers and growers, and Agri-EPI’s innovation farmers are taking different approaches to achieve more regenerative farming systems. Carbon sampling is one approach but the uptake within the network is only 56% of the farmers taking part. The farmers are generally looking at the value of their soils and how this can be measured in their businesses.

The most frequent complaint by the farmers was non-compatible services and having to rely on too many different platforms to reference crops, livestock, yields and soil samples.

 

Recommendations

  • There is a need for more research into reliable carbon sampling and interpretation of results. Standardised carbon auditing across the network is required for accurate measurements and collection of data on the farms.

 

  • Technology that can aid in the compatibility of services between farmers and allow for the storing of easily accessible information is also required. This could take the form of a platform used across the network for the collection and storage of the farms data.

 

  • It is necessary to assess the activities taking place on the farms in the network to determine whether they are having a positive or negative influence on regenerative practices.

 

  • The measure of nutrient application in variable rate manner is required for better utilisation of slurry, dung, fertiliser and lime.

 

  • The development of a soil mapping platform would aid in the measurement of many land-based activities including the spreading of fertiliser. This would aid in measuring change in the soil over specific periods of time.

 

Agri-EPI will be hosting a special interest group online event: ‘Exploring the importance of soil health’ on 19th April 11AM-12PM. Join to take part in forward thinking discussions, build community networks, and engage with other technology companies and farmers around how soil health can address specific challenges on farm.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/special-interest-group-exploring-the-importance-of-soil-health-tickets-557721759797

Farm visit to Godminster Farm

Agri-EPI lends expertise for Barclays soil health webinars

Understanding soil health

Agri-EPI Projects and Technical Manager, Freddie Reed, will be speaking at one of three Barclays Eagle Labs’ webinars focusing on soil on Wednesday 13 May at 18.00.

Freddie will be offering insight into how sensors and testing have the potential to help farmers improve soil health.

Freddie said:

“Technology has the potential to help us understand much more about what is going on in our soil. The more we understand the more important we realise our soil is for both environmental sustainability and productivity.

“I’ll be looking at the new sensors, tests and technologies are coming over the horizon to help farmers improve their soil health and explaining what the Agri-EPI Satellite Farm Network is doing in this important space.”

Barclays’ national network of Eagle Labs supports individuals, businesses and corporates innovate and grow, across a broad range of different sectors, including Agri-Tech. Agri-EPI collaborates with the Eagle Labs agri-tech team in a number of areas.

In addition to the soil sensors event on 13th May, a virtual meeting on 20th May will look at cover crops and healthy soil, while the third session on 27th May explores carbon sequestration.

To find our more visit: labs.uk.barclays/events.

More about Barclays Eagle Labs and P.E.S Technologies

Barclays Eagle Labs
Eagle Labs is building a platform to connect the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to drive digital skills development to help grow the economy through innovation and change. Barclays is on a mission to help make the UK the best place to start and grow innovative businesses by promoting creativity and entrepreneurship. Through our activities, we create opportunities for individuals and businesses of all sizes to access a broad range of skills to support this mission. Eagle Labs also support the transformation of businesses, industries and larger organisations through the delivery of structured innovation programming and access to new and emerging technologies. Read more: https://labs.uk.barclays.

P.E.S Technologies
A real-time, precision soil health analysis solution using advanced sensor technology which assesses emissions of volatile organic compounds. PES’ technology allows farmers to gain a clear understanding of their soil health and improve soil yields. Read more: http://pestechnologies.com.

Stay informed

Keep up to date with the latest impact and results of our work, plus, news, innovation and approaches across the sector. Read our latest news and Agri-EPI blogs.

PepsiCo chief opens Plant Phenotyping and Soil Health Facility

Agri-EPI Centre are pleased to be leading participant in supporting Indra Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive of PepsiCo, one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies in officially opening the Plant Phenotyping and Soil Health Facility at Cranfield University. The facility is a key component of UK’s Agri-Tech Strategy and has been set up to enable industry, famers, agronomists and agrichemical companies to understand soil management issues and to observe changes in crop health over space and time.

Agri-EPI Centre and CHAP are full partners of the Plant Phenotyping and Soil Health Facility and work together to bring the solutions to the industry. This facility provides unique primary-harvest to post-harvest technology at Cranfield University and is funded by Innovate UK through both Agri-EPI Centre and CHAP. To discuss a research collaboration or a commercial project using the Plant Phenotyping and Soil Health Facility, please contact Agri-EPI Centre via enquiries@agri-epicentre.com.

On the day the AgriTech facility was officially opened, Indra Nooyi – who is considered one of today’s world-leading businesswoman – also received an honorary degree from Cranfield University.

Previously, Mrs Nooyi served as PepsiCo’s President and Chief Financial Officer. Since joining the company in 1994, she has directed the company’s global strategy and led its transformation, including the acquisition of Tropicana and the merger with Quaker Oats that brought the Quaker and Gatorade businesses to PepsiCo; the merger with PepsiCo’s anchor bottlers; and the acquisition of Wimm-Bill-Dann, the largest international acquisition in PepsiCo’s history. PepsiCo’s main businesses include Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Walkers and Pepsi-Cola, with more than $63 billion in annual net revenue.

To discuss a research collaboration or a commercial project using the Plant Phenotyping and Soil Health Facility, contact us.

Tag Archive for: Soil Health

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