Smart sensing technology to help farmers use fertiliser more effectively and reduce environmental damage has been created by Imperial bioengineers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The technology, which is described today in\u00a0Nature Food,\u00a0could\u00a0help growers\u00a0work out the best time to use fertiliser on their crops\u00a0and how much is needed,\u00a0taking into account\u00a0factors such as the weather and the condition of the soil.\u00a0This would\u00a0reduce the expensive and environmentally damaging effects of\u00a0overfertilising\u00a0soil, which releases the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide and can pollute soil and waterways, writes the Imperial College London in a press release<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overfertilisation has so far rendered 12 per cent of once-arable land worldwide unusable and the use of nitrogen-based fertiliser has risen by 600 per cent in the last 50 years. However, it is difficult for crop growers to precisely tailor their own fertiliser use: too much and they risk environmental damage and money wastage; too little and they risk poor crop yields. The researchers behind this new sensing technology say it could provide benefits for both the environment and growers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a0sensor,\u00a0named chemically functionalised paper-based electrical gas sensor (chemPEGS),\u00a0measures levels of ammonium in soil the compound that is converted to nitrites and nitrates by soil bacteria.\u00a0Using a type of artificial intelligence called\u00a0machine learning,\u00a0it\u00a0combines this with weather data, time since fertilisation, pH, and soil conductivity measurements. It uses these data to predict how much total nitrogen the soil has now and\u00a0how much it\u00a0will have up to 12 days in the future,\u00a0to predict the optimum time for fertilisation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research\u00a0study\u00a0identifies how this new low-cost solution\u00a0could\u00a0help\u00a0growers\u00a0yield\u00a0maximum crops\u00a0with minimal fertilisation, particularly for fertiliser-thirsty crops like wheat. The technology could simultaneously reduce\u00a0growers’ expenses and environmental harm from nitrogen-based fertilisers – the most widely used fertiliser type.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead\u00a0researcher\u00a0Dr Max Grell,\u00a0who co-developed the technology\u00a0at Imperial\u00a0College London’s Department of Bioengineering,\u00a0said: “It’s difficult to overstate the problem of\u00a0overfertilisation\u00a0both environmentally and economically. Yields and resulting income are down year by year, and\u00a0growers\u00a0don’t currently have the tools they need to combat this.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Our\u00a0technology\u00a0could\u00a0help to\u00a0tackle\u00a0this problem by empowering\u00a0growers\u00a0to know how much\u00a0ammonia and nitrate\u00a0are\u00a0currently in soil, and\u00a0to\u00a0predict how much there will be\u00a0in the future\u00a0based on weather conditions. This\u00a0could\u00a0let them\u00a0fine-tune\u00a0fertilisation to the\u00a0specific\u00a0needs of the soil and crops.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excess nitrogen fertiliser releases nitrous oxide into the air, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and which contributes to the climate crisis. Excess fertiliser can also be washed by rain into waterways where it deprives aquatic life of oxygen, leading to algal blooms and reduced biodiversity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However\u00a0it remains difficult to precisely tailor levels of fertilisation to soil and crop needs.\u00a0Testing is rare and current ways to\u00a0measure soil nitrogen\u00a0involve sending soil samples to laboratories – a lengthy\u00a0and expensive\u00a0process\u00a0whose results are of limited use by the time they reach the\u00a0grower.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n This new low-cost approach could expedite the process of testing the soil. While chemPEGS only measures ammonium, the machine learning component allows it to predict current levels of nitrate and future levels of nitrate and ammonium in the soil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Senior author\u00a0and\u00a0principal\u00a0investigator\u00a0Dr Firat Guder<\/a>, from Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering, said: “Much of our food comes from soil – a non-renewable resource which we’ll lose\u00a0if we don’t look after it.\u00a0This, combined with nitrogen pollution from agriculture,\u00a0presents a conundrum for the planet – one that we hope to\u00a0help tackle\u00a0with precision agriculture.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Our sensing technology\u00a0can measure and predict soil\u00a0nitrogen\u00a0with enough accuracy to forecast the impact of weather on fertilisation planning, and tune timing for crop requirements, which we hope will help to reduce\u00a0overfertilisation\u00a0while improving crop yields\u00a0and profits for\u00a0growers.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers expect chemPEGS and associated AI technology, which are currently in prototype stage, to be available for commercialisation in three to five years with more testing and manufacturing standardisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This work was funded by\u00a0EPSRC,\u00a0Innovate UK, and\u00a0Cytiva.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also interesting: <\/strong><\/em>Revolutionary organic hydrogel could transform world agriculture<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2084,"featured_media":324187,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":""},"categories":[8553],"tags":[126149,126151,55453,126153,57977,35572],"location":[55977],"internal_archives":[],"class_list":["post-324186","selected","type-selected","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital","tag-cytiva","tag-epsrc","tag-imperial-college-london","tag-innovate-uk","tag-precision-agriculture","tag-sensors","location-united-kingdom"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/BIwr20Sw-candidate-2nef_1639416391024_x2-1.jpg","coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/mauro-mereu\/","display_name":"Mauro Mereu"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on December 14, 2021","modified":"Updated on December 14, 2021"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on December 14, 2021 10:00 am","modified":"Updated on December 14, 2021 10:00 am"},"featured_img_caption":"\u00a9 Tarek Asfour\/Phil Coatsworth\/Firat Guder","tax_additional":{"category":{"linked":["Digital<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Digital<\/span>"],"slug":"category","name":"Categories"},"post_tag":{"linked":["Cytiva<\/a>","EPSRC<\/a>","Imperial College London<\/a>","Innovate UK<\/a>","precision agriculture<\/a>","sensors<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Cytiva<\/span>","EPSRC<\/span>","Imperial College London<\/span>","Innovate UK<\/span>","precision agriculture<\/span>","sensors<\/span>"],"slug":"post_tag","name":"Tags"},"language":{"linked":["EN<\/a>"],"unlinked":["EN<\/span>"],"slug":"language","name":"Tags"},"post_translations":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"post_translations","name":""},"location":{"linked":["United Kingdom<\/a>"],"unlinked":["United Kingdom<\/span>"],"slug":"location","name":"Locations"},"internal_archives":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"internal_archives","name":"Internal Archives"}},"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/selected\/324186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/selected"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/selected"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324186"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=324186"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=324186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Nitrogen pollution <\/h3>\n\n\n\n