Even as soil health practices become more widespread, farmer participation in carbon programs remains relatively low. While 72 percent of respondents are aware of carbon offerings, only three percent are enrolled in a carbon sequestration program. Many farmers indicate that they would consider a carbon program if the payout per acre reached $20; however, it isn’t until the payout per acre would reach an estimated $40 that the majority said they would commit to participation in a program. A recent Purdue study highlights that farmers need to be incentivized to adopt practices and join a carbon program.

Forty-four percent of farmers who have not already adopted these practices report increased interest in on-farm stewardship during the past five years. Lack of access to necessary equipment and services, as well as concern about return on investment, were cited as the biggest barriers to practice adoption.

“We always start with the agronomy to make sure practices are a good fit. Carbon programs can help to offset the costs of new practices to further drive farm profitability and stewardship outcomes. The data shows that many farmers are interested in these practices and will adopt them with a higher payout. As an industry, this means we must work to remove barriers to increase practice adoption and provide farmers with holistic solutions such as carbon programs to drive prices toward that $40 level and beyond,” 

said Ben Gordon, Portfolio Lead, Carbon Ecosystems and Services, Corteva Agriscience.

Other key insights from the Corteva Agriscience survey demonstrate how price points, barriers to entry and trusted advisors are important factors for farmers when considering carbon programs.

Pricing preferences

• The majority of farmers don’t believe that a carbon program sounds appealing until they can get paid at least $40/acre to participate, confirming a recent Purdue article about what farmers would need to switch from conventional tillage to no-till.

Familiarity with carbon programs

• Seventy-two percent of survey respondents said they had heard about carbon programs but didn’t know much about them. Twenty percent are actively looking into and evaluating such programs. Three percent are currently enrolled in one.
• Almost two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents already utilize cover cropping or reduced tillage on at least some of their acres.

Barriers to adoption of soil health practices (cover crop and reduced tillage)

• The biggest barriers to planting cover crops and/or use of strip or no-till are lack of access to necessary equipment or custom applicators, as well as concern that they may not see a return on investment.

Barriers to enrollment in a carbon program

• In most cases, payment/acre as it stands today will not cover their costs to implement the required practices to become eligible for a carbon program.

Decision influencers

• The individuals who have the most influence on farmers’ decisions related to planting cover crops or implementing strip or no-till are consultants/agronomists, other farmers and family.

Interest in on-farm stewardship and conservation issues

• Fifty-eight percent of 617 survey respondents said they have become more or much more interested in on-farm stewardship and conservation in the past five years (40 percent no change, two percent less interested)
• Among non-adopters of cover crops or reduced tillage, 44 percent said they have become more or much more interested in on-farm stewardship and conservation in the past five years.

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This could provide farmers with accurate, repeatable soil health monitoring at the farm scale. Agronomists and farmers could use this information to guide precision improvements to soil health, maximizing yield, and increasing revenue with minimum chemical input.

The groundbreaking pilot project is being conducted using SRC’s Tom monitoring robot to take soil samples with PES Technologies’ soil health sensor mounted on the robot. The sensor detects Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)  released from soil. In the wider project, the sensor output is being correlated with information about 10+ soil health indicators, including microbial biomass and soil organic matter content.

The project consortium comprises PES Technologies, Small Robot Company, NIAB-EMR, HL Hutchinson Limited, the University of Essex, and the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich. The project is funded by the government’s Innovate UK grant program. Trial sites include the Lockerley Estate in Hampshire, where robots are a key part of its regenerative farming strategy.

Game-changing for soil health

Phase one of the pilot is now complete, with the proof-of-concept milestone now achieved. The team developed and attached a mechanical sampler to the robot, collecting soil samples from the trial site for in situ detection of VOCs. The soil sample size collected is 10cm3 (400g).

Working together, the consortium is using machine learning approaches to profile soil health trialing VOC sensing technology for automated, continuous in-field sensing with the SRC robots. Microbial VOCs other than carbon dioxide has not previously been exploited in a practical low-cost, on-farm method for measurement of soil health.

The next phase of the robotics element of the project is for NIAB-EMR to conduct ground truthing on soil health data gathered. Samples collected by the robot will be sent to the lab for testing and analysis and compared with the PES sensor data. This will be conducted in the autumn, including at five existing on-farm sites at Lockerley Estate, including comparisons with five years of historical data.

PES Technologies are developing a game-changing soil health analysis tool to provide farmers with a cost-effective technology for the rapid assessment of soil health. In the project, the tool’s output data is being related to a variety of biological, chemical, and physical soil health indicators, including microbial biomass and soil organic matter content, by analyzing the activities and diversity of a soil’s microbial community.

Prior to this project in 2018, PES Technologies demonstrated the feasibility of using the sensor for detecting differences in soil volatiles in collaboration with NIAB-EMR.

Sam Watson Jones, President, and co-founder, Small Robot Company, said,

“Developing farming systems that can regenerate soil health at scale has to be one of our highest priorities. This is vital for food security. Farming is seeing a big shift from intensively managing the soil to regeneratively managing the soil. Our autonomous robots can already deliver a highly precise per plant view. The next step is to bring this precise viewpoint to soil biology. At a level of detail far in excess of current best practice.”

Andrej Porovic, CEO, PES Technologies comments:

“Healthy soils are key to profitable farming. Poor soil health is reducing the productivity and profitability of the agricultural industry worldwide – in particular, it is impacting yields and soils’ resilience to changes in climate. There are more micro-organisms per gram of healthy soil than there are people on the planet – but without these living microbes, the soil is not soil, but just dust. Choosing the right way to improve soil health is vital. We believe that putting our technology on SRC’s robots would be a real game-changer.”

Craig Livingstone, one of the first farmers to trial the new technology, SRC Farmer Advisory Group and National Food Strategy Board representative says,

“Robotics offer us a real chance to answer the many questions of modern agriculture in responding to climate change, carbon sequestration, biodiversity and of course soil and food security. The light weight, low impact monitoring robot Tom is now on my farm scanning emerging wheat, and taking soil samples to assess soil health. In time, by reducing the trafficking on our soil, minimising the use of pesticides, I’m convinced this can only add to more productive, functioning soils capable of producing quality nutritious food.”

Gateway for Carbon Testing

In the future, robotic monitoring could also provide accurate, repeatable carbon measurements at the farm scale. This could be transformational in providing accurate carbon sequestration measurement to support UK farming’s transition to Net Zero by 2040. In the UK alone, 18 million tonnes of emissions could be converted into anything up to 6 million tonnes of CO₂ locked back into the soil, every year. That is a net difference of 24 million tonnes, the equivalent of two-thirds of the UK’s emissions from aviation.

“The UK – and UK agriculture – have made bold commitments to Net Zero. Robotics can already take billions of accurate measurements in each field. This will transform the way that farms are able to sequester and cycle carbon and measure that accurately. The opportunity for the UK (and global) agriculture to support the transition towards Net Zero is enormous,”

agreed Sam Watson Jones. 

Craig Livingstone said:

“The climate and biodiversity emergency is here and now for farming. The carbon objectives for our business are really important, focusing strongly on our operations emissions reductions and carbon sequestration. An overarching strategic aim for our business is to be Net Zero, and robotics will be a key tool to take us there.”

Rob Macklin, the National Trust’s Head of Farming and Soils, commented:

“Technology needs to play a big part in solving many of the issues we currently face in farming – particularly improving soil health and carbon sequestration, reducing our reliance on fossil fuel power and fertilizers, and avoiding the adverse impacts of synthetic chemicals on the environment. We have started small robot trials at Wimpole and intend to extend trials to other estates in the near future.

Calum Murray, Innovate UK’s Head of Agriculture & Food, said:

“It’s fantastic to see how Innovate UK’s funding has supported Small Robot Company to develop game changing technologies that will revolutionize the agriculture sector. At Innovate UK, we are proud to be supporting the transformation of the UK’s food production systems, improving productivity and sustainability, and helping the industry move towards achieving net zero emissions by 2040.”

Source: Small Robot Company

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They are then adding the data produced by representative bodies such as the Confindustria Industry Exhibition Committee and by specialized research companies such as GRS, in order to monitor the exhibition phenomena in this unique situation. The participation of exhibitors – as emerges from the collected data – is lower than normal for all the events that took place in recent weeks, even if some of them have maintained a very high number of participating companies (such as the Boat Show of Genoa or the Mercante in Fiera of Parma).

The presence of the public varies from event to event: in some cases, there were significant numbers of visitors, in other cases the participation was affected more deeply by the restrictions linked to the health situation. However, the element that the organizers report unanimously is the professional connotation of the participating public. The disruptions caused by the emergency weigh more on the general public, while they affect a lot less the audience of businesspeople and professionals, who need to establish direct contact with the manufacturing companies and maintain a network of relationships with the industry players.

Although certainly in smaller numbers, the businesspeople who attended the recent exhibitions are “decision-makers” who travel to do business and choose exhibitions that are essential to their business. The composition of the public of foreign businesspeople is affected by the “geography of the crisis” since there are areas from which it is easier to organize travel and areas instead (see some South American countries such as Brazil and Colombia, some Gulf countries such as Kuwait and Oman, and some of the Balkan area such as Kosovo) where restrictions are more limiting.

The management of health facilities and procedures – another element that emerges clearly – does not suffer from any critical issues, since the obligations relating to temperature checks, sanitation of environments, use of masks, social distancing, and booking of the slots for refreshments are fulfilled in an orderly and fluid fashion. The visits to the stands are more targeted and the appointments agenda is mostly managed in concert with the exhibitors, so as not to cause crowds.

The monitoring carried out by GRS includes the one relating to the public’s perception of safety at the exhibition, which is particularly interesting:

“The data collected in recent months – read a GRS report – shows how visiting the exhibition is considered by the public as a very reassuring and comfortable experience, with over 70% of respondents reporting a high perception of reliability, compared to the 55% found among the frequenters of shopping centers, 48% among restaurant customers, 36% among the users of public transport, and just 17% recorded among visitors of children’s playgrounds”.

As far as EIMA is concerned, the organizational offices recorded a higher level of participation by exhibiting industries than the pandemic emergency could have led to predict – to date about 1,600 companies have confirmed their participation in EIMA next February. High participation by businesspeople is also expected (a recent survey conducted by the Unacma retailers association on the entire base of retailers reveals, for example, that over 85% of them intend to attend the Bologna Exhibition).

For the purpose of streamlining attendance at the exhibition, EIMA is able to take advantage of the Digital Preview, which takes place in virtual reality from 11 to 15 November. This enables the participants to select the most interesting company contacts and optimize appointment scheduling as much as possible. The gap caused by the travel difficulties from some countries will be reduced as much as possible through the establishment of “green corridors” promoted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, on which the Federation is investing great efforts.

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Agriculture is system critical. With the coronavirus pandemic, the planet is facing an unprecedented modern challenge. Securing food supply must be a top priority and maintaining access to food is critical in fighting this virus both short and long term.

We feature this statement about the role of AGCO during covid 19 crises ***

We recognize the key role that our equipment plays in a sustainable food supply. Our commitment is to keeping production running and inventory open and accessible as long as possible, so farmers everywhere have the tools they need. It means continuing to operate our parts, service and support functions for customers so they can keep feeding the world, whether planting, harvesting or caring for animals. And it means keeping these commitments while protecting the health of our customers, employees and communities.

For our customers and dealers

Farmers and the agricultural supply chain have never been more important. We are doing everything we can to keep our plants, distribution and field support operating normally with minimal disruptions to help farmers grow and harvest the food we all need to survive. From our CEO to every employee across the globe, this is mission critical.

For our employees

The safety and well-being of our employees is our top priority. We are closely following guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other health agencies to protect our employees. We’ve implemented international and domestic travel restrictions, drastically increased our sanitation efforts and implemented remote or staggered shifts to follow social-distancing recommendations, including asking employees that can work from home to do so.

For our communities

We are following and adhering to local regulation and guidance in the communities where we operate. We’re also giving back: our facilities and employees around the globe are helping to address local impacts of COVID-19 as we all combat this pandemic together.

Source: AGCO

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