Towards Low Cost Soil Fertility Sensor Systems for Smallholder Food Security in Kenya

为肯尼亚小农粮食安全打造低成本土壤肥力传感器系统

• 批准号: EP/Y001826/1
• 负责人: Andrew Ward
• 金额: $ 21.87万
• 依托单位: University of Strathclyde
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY001826%2F1
• 关键词: Towards; Low; Cost; Soil; Fertility

Food security is one of the "big four" agenda initiatives championed by the Kenyan Government. More than 80% of Kenya's population is dependent upon agriculture for employment, income, or food security needs (FAO) and a large proportion of the population are food insecure, for example 26% of children under 5 years of age suffer from malnutrition (UNICEF). The food security challenge is intensified by: reducing size of land parcels as a result of population growth; farmers being pushed into dryer lower quality land areas vulnerable to drought; conflicts resulting from competition for land; and people dropping out of nomadic life to move to settled communities dependent upon food aid (FAO).To address this, increases in agricultural productivity are needed. An important way to improve crop yield relates to better soil fertility. Optimising fertiliser strategies for soil can be summed up as: Right Source, Right Rate, Right Place, Right Time. For the greatest impact, this requires in-field measurement tools that can be used by farmers to understand the spatial changes in nutrient concentration within a field, and how these vary over time. No technology currently exists that allows this to be carried out at very low cost. The alternative to in-field testing is the use of soil laboratories in Nairobi, but these are expensive to use, far away from the farm and provide a single measurement which is not representative of the whole area farmed. In consequence, most smallholders are in the dark about the nutrition status of their soil and how it changes in response to different soil amendment approaches.This project will help address the measurement challenge by developing a new kind of sensor that can be used by farmers at very low cost to regularly test for two key soil macro-nutrients, called nitrate and phosphate. The project will take inspiration from ancient art and design based printing processes, combined with locally available natural materials (e.g. chimney soot, egg, newspaper and enzymes from plants and bacteria available within Kenya) to make extremely low cost soil sensors. By adopting a "co-creation" based philosophy, the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Kenyatta University in Nairobi and Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow will build a collaboration to deliver a step change in sensing technology for smallholder farmers in Kenya. This will be achieved by initially developing the sensor in the UK, employing a researcher from Kenya. Once a proof of concept has been created, the researcher will return to Kenya with the knowledge and understanding to recreate the sensor and test performance in greenhouse trials. The project will also involve a series of workshops where we will engage communities, industry and policy makers to ensure that we create user led solutions to address food security within Kenya.In the long term, this could be delivered to farmers either as a "factory in a box" containing the tools needed for sensor manufacture, or simply as an information pack that shows how to gather the resources required and print sensors. The project could also influence the wider region: 20 million people across Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia are food insecure (Worldbank, 2022), and face similar challenges. Parallel benefits also exist for UK innovation, where knowledge and learning from this project could support the manufacture of nature based and zero waste sensors to support UK agriculture and the transition to net zero.

粮食安全是肯尼亚政府倡导的“四大”议程倡议之一。肯尼亚80％以上的人口取决于农业的就业，收入或粮食安全需求（FAO），而大部分人口是粮食不安全的，例如，5岁以下的5岁以下儿童患有营养不良（联合国儿童基金会）。粮食安全挑战的加剧是：减少人口增长的陆地包裹尺寸；农民被推入干旱的较低质量的土地地区；土地竞争引起的冲突；人们退出游牧生活的人们转移到定居的社区依赖粮食援助（FAO）。要解决这一点，需要提高农业生产力。提高农作物产量的一种重要方法与更好的土壤生育能力有关。优化土壤的肥料策略可以概括为：正确的来源，正确的价格，正确的位置，正确的时间。为了产生最大的影响，这需要农民可以使用的场内测量工具来了解田间营养浓度的空间变化，以及这些工具随着时间的流逝而变化。目前没有任何技术可以以非常低的成本进行。现场测试的替代方法是在内罗毕使用土壤实验室，但使用这些实验室很昂贵，远离农场，并提供了单一的测量值，而这不能代表整个耕种的整个区域。因此，大多数小农户对土壤的营养状况以及它如何响应不同的土壤修订方法的变化处于黑暗中。该项目将通过开发一种新型的传感器来帮助应对测量挑战，而农民可以以非常低的成本将其用于定期测试两种关键的土壤宏观营养素，称为硝酸盐和磷酸盐。该项目将从古老的基于艺术和设计的印刷过程中汲取灵感，再加上本地可用的天然材料（例如，肯尼亚内部植物和细菌的烟囱烟灰，鸡蛋，报纸和酶）使土壤传感器非常低。通过采用“共同创造”的哲学，格拉斯哥的Strathclyde大学，内罗毕的肯雅塔大学和格拉斯哥的格拉斯哥艺术学院将建立合作，以在肯尼亚为小型持有人农民提供感官技术的逐步改变。这将通过最初在英国开发传感器来实现这一目标，并雇用了来自肯尼亚的研究人员。一旦创建了概念证明，研究人员将凭借知识和理解返回肯尼亚，以重新创建温室试验中的传感器和测试性能。该项目还将涉及一系列的研讨会，我们将与社区，行业和政策制定者联系，以确保我们创建用户LED解决方案来解决肯尼亚境内的粮食安全。从长远来看，这可以作为“盒子中的工厂”交付给农民，其中包含传感器制造所需的工具，或者简单地将其作为信息包作为信息包，以显示所需的资源所需的资源所需的资源和打印传感器。该项目还可能影响更广泛的地区：肯尼亚，埃塞俄比亚和索马里的2000万人是粮食不安全的（Worldbank，2022），并且面临类似的挑战。英国创新也存在并行利益，在该项目中，该项目的知识和学习可以支持基于自然和零废物传感器的制造，以支持英国农业以及向零净的过渡。