Assessing the effectiveness of affordable soil spectroscopic techniques for microbial diversity and abundance predictions on English wheat farms

评估经济适用的土壤光谱技术对英国小麦农场微生物多样性和丰度预测的有效性

• 批准号: 10055289
• 金额: $ 24.63万
• 依托单位: ELANITI LTD.
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10055289
• 关键词: Assessing; effectiveness; affordable; soil; spectroscopic

Elaniti, Camgrain, and Rothamsted Research are working together to establish the feasibility of interpolating soil microbial information on English wheat farms from more affordable and ubiquitous data sources. Traceable data demonstrating the sustainability credentials of source ingredients is increasingly required by consumer-facing organisations (FMCGs and Supermarkets), who have shown a willingness for supply-chain or 'insetting' investments.These organisations have also set ambitious sustainable-sourcing and emissions targets, so have begun financially incentivising farmers to adopt regenerative practices\[12\]. However, this regenerative transition is fraught with risk for individual farmers, who are unsure which interventions are suited for the needs of their soils. Unlocking this information for England's farmers will de-risk their transition to regenerative agriculture, with a 78%\[9\] uplift in on-farm profitability achievable through reduced input costs and increased crop value.Healthy and fertile soils are at the heart of the human diet, with 95% of all food we consume produced by soil\[13\]. However, the situation for British wheat farmers, accounting for 43% of total UK crops grown\[1\], is becoming increasingly bleak. Soil degradation now costs the UK £1.2bn per year\[4\] - due to Soil Organic Content (SOC) losses, reduced productivity from soil compaction, and reduced water quality from soil erosion.A decline in microbial abundance and diversity can act as an early warning sign for soil compaction and erosion, as well as preempting the amount of SOC in the soil due to the pivotal role microbes play in carbon, nitrogen, and nutrient cycling\[7\]. In turn, a 'healthy' soil microbiome elicits valuable downstream impacts on crops, including enhanced nutrient density\[14\]. Soil microbes therefore, are highly sensitive indicators of long-term soil health changes\[6\], and key determinants of crop outcomes, specifically in wheat\[7\].The only way farmers can measure microbial communities today, is by interpreting complex results from expensive DNA analyses. As this is cost-prohibitive for most farmers, they generally rely on Physico-Chemical analyses alone\[8\], limiting information to macronutrients (NPK levels).This project adopts a multidisciplinary approach, leveraging the scientific expertise of Rothamsted Research and machine learning know-how from Elaniti, to demonstrate the feasibility of an innovative method for soil health measurement with farmers from one of the UK's largest farming cooperatives, Camgrain.This project aims to democratise soil microbial information, enabling England's wheat farmers to improve the health of their soils, facilitating an economically viable, sustainable, and scalable regenerative agriculture transition.

Elaniti，Camgrain和Rothamsted Research正在共同努力，以建立从更负担得起和无处不在的数据来源上插值土壤微生物信息的可行性。面向消费者的组织（FMCG和超市）越来越需要可追溯的数据，这些数据表明，越来越多地要求提供供应链或“插入”投资的人。这些组织还设定了雄心勃勃的可持续性和排放目标，因此已经开始在经济上激励农民采用再生实践\ [12 \]。但是，这种再生过渡是对个别农民的风险，他们不确定哪些干预措施适合其土壤的需求。为英格兰的农民解锁此信息将使他们向再生农业过渡，并以78％的\ [9 \]通过降低的投入成本和增加的作物价值实现了农业盈利性的78％\ [9 \]。人类饮食的核心是健康和肥沃的土壤，我们消耗了95％的食物，而我们消耗了95％的食物。但是，英国小麦农民的局势占英国总农作物的43％\ [1 \]的局势越来越黯淡。现在，由于土壤有机含量（SOC）损失（SOC）损失，降低货舱压实的生产力以及降低水土侵蚀的水质下降，土壤退化为英国每年12亿英镑\ [4 \] - 微生物丰度和多样性的下降可以作为土壤压实和衰落的频率促进的速度，以及在土壤中发挥作用的早期警告迹象，并在土壤中发挥作用。氮和营养循环\ [7 \]。反过来，“健康”的土壤微生物组引起了对农作物的有价值的下游影响，包括增强的营养密度\ [14 \]。因此，土壤微生物是长期土壤健康变化的高度敏感指标\ [6 \]，而作物结果的关键决定者，特别是在小麦\ [7 \]中。今天，农民可以衡量微生物群落的唯一方法是解释昂贵DNA分析的复杂结果。由于对于大多数农民而言，这通常依赖于物理化学分析\ [8 \]，将信息限制在大量营养素上（NPK水平）。该项目采用多学科方法，利用了Rothamsted研究和机器学习知识的科学知识，从而证明了一个人的疾病。英国最大的农业合作社Camgrain。该项目旨在使土壤微生物信息民主化，使英格兰的小麦农民能够改善土壤的健康状况，支持经济上可行，可持续和可扩展的再生农业过渡。