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，确定从更实惠、更普遍的数据源插值英国小麦农场土壤微生物信息的可行性，这些数据表明面向消费者的组织（快速消费品）越来越需要原料来源的可持续性证明。 ）和超市），他们已经表现出了对供应链或“插入”投资的意愿。这些组织还制定了雄心勃勃的可持续采购和排放目标，因此已经开始在经济上激励农民采用再生实践\[12\] 然而，这种再生转型对个体农民来说充满了风险，他们不确定哪些干预措施适合其土壤的需求，为英格兰农民解锁这些信息将降低他们向再生农业转型的风险。 ，通过降低投入成本和提高作物价值，可将农场盈利能力提高 78%\[9\]。健康肥沃的土壤是人类饮食的核心，占所有食物的 95%我们消费的是土壤生产的作物\[13\]，然而，占英国农作物种植总量的43%\[1\]的英国小麦种植者的处境正变得越来越严峻，土壤退化现在让英国损失了12亿英镑。年\[4\] - 由于土壤有机含量 (SOC) 损失、土壤板结导致的生产力下降以及土壤侵蚀导致的水质下降。微生物丰度和多样性的下降可以作为土壤板结和侵蚀的早期预警信号， 也由于微生物在碳、氮和养分循环中发挥着关键作用，因此可以抢占土壤中的 SOC 量\[7\] 反过来，“健康”的土壤微生物组会对作物产生宝贵的下游影响，包括提高养分密度\。 [14\] 因此，土壤微生物是长期土壤健康变化的高度敏感指标\[6\]，也是作物产量的关键决定因素，特别是小麦\[7\]。农民测量微生物的唯一方法当今社区的方法是解释昂贵的 DNA 分析的复杂结果，因为这对大多数农民来说成本过高，他们通常仅依赖物理化学分析\[8\]，将信息限制在常量营养素（NPK 水平）。该项目采用采用多学科方法，利用洛桑研究中心的科学专业知识和 Elaniti 的机器学习专业知识，与英国最大的农业合作社之一的农民一起展示土壤健康测量创新方法的可行性， Camgrain。该项目旨在使土壤微生物信息民主化，使英格兰的小麦种植者能够改善土壤健康，促进经济上可行、可持续和可扩展的再生农业转型。