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Research Spotlight
A new project is hoping to improve both sustainability and profitability by helping wheat farmers use nitrogen judiciously and in an environmentally friendly manner.
Called 'From Nitrogen Use Efficiency to Farm Profitability (NUE-Profits)', the Innovate UK-funded project will equip farmers with a management system that will use data from in-field sensors and weather stations to provide advice on the most optimal application. This will allow them to use the right amount of nitrogen – which crops need to grow and complete their full lifecycles – in the right part of the field, at the right time.
Led by AgAnalyst and with Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology (LIAT) as the key academic partner, the project will lead to significant improvements in nitrogen and nutrient management and provide opportunities to secure secondary income streams for farms. It will also help them integrate with existing land management schemes and enhance food security by reducing dependency on nitrogen.
We are very excited to work on this important project with the UK’s agri-tech industry. The project will result in more sustainable farming operations bringing large economic and environmental benefits to the industry.
Professor Grzegorz Cielniak
Professor of Robotics, Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology
"The University of Lincoln team is developing affordable technology for in-field measurements, validating it at field experiments and assuring knowledge exchange with key stakeholders," explains Professor Grzegorz Cielniak, who is the principal investigator. "As nitrogen use and emissions are reduced, the partnership is exploring new income opportunities for farmers on the back of reduced carbon emissions.
"The aim is to make nitrogen use measurements a new benchmark for farmers to utilise nitrogen effectively to provide more profit while improving sustainability in farming."
Nitrogen use efficiency is a way of understanding the relationships between the total nitrogen input compared to the nitrogen output and how this is translated to grain yield and quality. It is an important trait in crop breeding programmes, which aims to improve crop yield while reducing input costs, such as fertilizers, and at the same time keeping nitrogen out of the environment. Reducing fertilizer inputs would lead to fewer greenhouse gas emissions and less nitrate leaching into the groundwater and surface water.
At Lincoln, we recognise that the application of technological innovation is crucial to helping to solve some of the big challenges facing agriculture and food production. By focusing on agri-food technology, our researchers are helping to improve productivity, efficiency, and sustainability by developing new approaches that are having a major impact across the food chain.
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Jim Williams, Chairman of lead partner AgAnalyst, who assist farmers in taking control of their own data and utilising it for maximum gain, added: "We think this project is important in giving farmers the confidence to work with their nitrogen use efficiency and overcome the fear of compromising yield or quality.
“AgAnalyst is delighted to be working with LIAT because their focus on soils and their sound reputation with landowners and growers for developing practical solutions for both land and water management. With the University of Lincoln as our academic partner and other fantastic collaborators in the industry, we think we can make a significant contribution to improving greenhouse gas emissions from nitrogen use as well as reduce nitrogen run-off into the water course.”
NUE-Profits is funded by DEFRA’s Farming Future R&D Fund: Climate Smart Farming, through The Farming Innovation Programme and is in partnership with Innovate UK, who are delivering the programme. Other partners include Agreed Earth, Assimila, Dales Land Net, Dyson Farming, European Food and Farming Partnerships, Hill Court Farm Research, Navigate Eco Solutions, N Blacker & Sons, and Velcourt.
Professor Grzegorz Cielniak's research interests include mobile robotics, artificial intelligence, and multi-modal perception systems. His research is multidisciplinary and crosses the areas of computer science, engineering, and agriculture.
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