Projects

We are continuously seeking project partners to push the boundaries in Precision Farming and related industries. By bringing together the right people incredible things can happen.

Innovation & Collaboration

Insights into current projects are below;

Delivering a sustainable potato industry for Scotland through management of Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN)

Potato cyst nematodes (PCN) are a major pest to potatoes. There are two main species, Globodera rostochiensis and Globodera pallida. PCN live in the soil and feed on potato roots which negatively affects potato yields and quality. Land infested with PCN is becoming more widespread throughout Scotland, the UK and abroad.

A large working group with a range of potato industry, government and academic backgrounds was set up to identify a strategy and key recommendations for dealing with PCN. As a result of the work done by this group, the Scottish Government awarded funding for a fully integrated 5 year project of scientific research and knowledge exchange with an aim to deliver a sustainable potato and bulb industry for Scotland through the management of PCN.

The project is led by the Plant Health Centre and involves a range of academics and industry including James Hutton Institute, SRUC, SoilEssentials, Scottish Agronomy and SASA who are all working together to deliver the aim.

To meet the aim the main areas of focus are:

• Economics: determining the cost of PCN and the economic risks if not managed
• Decision Support System: a digital platform to help growers make informed choices on PCN management
• Resistance markers: identifying molecular markers for resistance to PCN
• Accelerated Breeding: Techniques such as dihaploid induction will be used to combine different traits to breed plants with resistance against PCN
• Tolerance to PCN: Exploring how tolerance works at a genetic level which will help breeders produce more tolerant varieties.
• Groundkeeper control: Developing better methods for locating and controlling groundkeepers (volunteer potato plants)
• Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Integrated approach for the best way to manage pests like PCN including assessing the contribution options such as traps crops, and chitin compost can make to PCN control
• Knowledge Exchange: Outputs of the project will be brought together and delivered to stakeholders through a national communication programme

SoilEssentials are leading alongside JHI on the Decision Support System, in developing a digital platform that will help growers, agronomists and landowners make informed decisions on how best to manage PCN by providing different options specific to their situation and reducing risks by highlighting the implications of different approaches. There have been numerous workshops with growers, scientists etc to collate their requirements and review of existing PCN models to determine essential elements and outputs from a decision support system.
The other main area of focus for SoilEssentials is Groundkeeper control and using precision methods to detect and control groundkeepers. The technology will be monitored, developed and adapted throughout the project. The SKAi system is to be utilised on this aim of the project and this year will focus on image acquisition of groundkeepers in broccoli.
For more information on the project visit: https://www.pcnhub.ac.uk/

QMS – Monitor Farm Scotland Programme

SoilEssentials are delighted to have been chosen by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) to support on the Monitor Farm Scotland Programme. Nine new farming businesses across Scotland were announced in November 2022 and will be the focus for the next 4 years. The programme is managed by QMS with support from AHDB and funding from the Scottish Government. It aims to help farms reach full economic, social, and environmental sustainability, by optimising production. In this cycle of the programme SoilEssentials are co-ordinating soil sampling, analysis and preparation of data across the nine Monitor Farms.

For any further information regarding soil sampling please contact either Catriona McLean: catriona@soilessentials.com or Nicola Beattie: nicola@soilessentials.com

Building a Decision Support Tool for Blackleg (DeS-BL)

SoilEssentials are supporting this project which is led by James Hutton Institute (JHI) and includes academia, government agronomy and industry to understand the interaction between blackleg and nematodes.

Pectobacterium atrosepticum (Pba) is one of the most economically damaging bacterial plant pathogen in the UK, causing blackleg disease of potato plants and soft rot of tubers. The priority of project DeS-BL (Building a Decisions Support Tool for Blackleg Disease) is to develop an integrated suite of decision support tools for farmers, agronomists and policymakers to facilitate management of the disease.

The project will focus on:

• Understanding the role of nematode worms and insects in disease transmission
• Investigating the impact of current practices, including irrigation and crop rotation on disease establishment
• Studying the potato root microbiome, how it changes with soil conditions and the potential for biocontrol
• Using data from past outbreaks and climate change models to identify drivers of disease and develop a tool for predicting blackleg risk
• Collaborating with industry and policymakers to implement and evaluate the project findings and decision making tool

The project is in its third year and SoilEssentials continue to support through stakeholder engagement, knowledge exchange, expertise on remote precision sensing and agricultural solutions to assist with decision support tool development.

NextLand (Next Generation Land Management Services for Agriculture and Forestry)

In its final year, the NextLand project is an alliance of Earth Observation providers that have collaborated to offer cutting edge EO technology. The project will develop land management services based on GEOSS and Copernicus data for Agriculture and Forestry across the globe.

NextLand follows a co-design and service development approach with users and other relevant stakeholders deriving requirements and customising service delivery solutions to fit their business and decision making processes. SoilEssentials have supported the project in these co-design cycles by collaborating with the service providers on user scenarios, testing and providing feedback. The output from the co-design cycles is then used for further customisation and adaption of the EO products and services.

For further information see the dedicated project website: https://ec-nextland.eu

Teagasc Weed Mapping

SoilEssentials continue their partnership with Teagasc, the Agricultural and Food Development Authority in Ireland. This project is in its final year looking at grass weed control and ways to help the farmers assess the infestation levels of various grass weeds in crops. Teagasc is the national body providing integrated research, advisory and training services to the agriculture and food industry and rural communities in Ireland and are the lead on the Enable Conservation Tillage (ECT) project. The ECT project is a European Innovation Partnership.

SoilEssentials are assisting in this project by collaborating with the project farmers with weed issues who will then run validation trials, using various weed control methods and use mobile app and drone imagery updated to KORE (our cloud precision farming platform) to monitor weeds.

The ongoing project support by SoilEssentials covers:

• Continuing to assist the trial farmers using the mobile app, which allows them to log accurate weed points and then using this data to map weeds
• Creating maps based on the number of weeds within a field grid square recorded in the app. The maps are colour coded based on the weed score value and reports provided let farmers see at a glance the areas of their fields that are most/least affected
• Trial farmers have started to use KORE to record large patches of weeds by flying a drone over the field and uploading the imagery to KORE. Using the Scouting app within KORE they can then draw around the weeds seen in the ATV image
• SoilEssentials extract the drawn area and convert into a shapefile that is used on the farmers’ sprayers to target the weeds much more accurately over the affected areas. Where this has trialled, the farmers have noticed a big reduction in the weeds in the fields

Michael Hennessy, Head of Crop Knowledge Transfer Department at Teagasc has commented;
“SoilEssentials’ software has greatly assisted the ECT project team to allow us to accurately collect weed data and track the population patterns over success seasons to very specific areas within the field. The user interface in the field was easy to use cutting down the time needed when counting weeds in large fields.
This data allows us to accurately gauge how effective control actions are on each Focus Farm and this provided a great feedback loop to farmers about their actions.
By tracking weed populations over a period of 4 to 5 seasons it gives a very real picture of what farmers can practically do to help control grass weeds and most importantly see what works and what doesn’t work.”

SKAi (SoilEssentials KORE Artificial intelligence platform)