Complex solutions for farmers
Laboratory methodology and soil health decision support system
Our aim is to improve the health of soils, to reverse degradation, i.e. to promote sustainable soil management and soil protection.
About us
SoilHealth Lab is a dynamic and evolving knowledge and tool base that supports farmers, researchers, and policymakers in understanding and improving soil health. The platform aims to make the tools, methods, and data developed by our team accessible, while also supporting their practical application in the service of sustainable agriculture.
Within the framework of the project, we developed a laboratory methodology and a soil health decision-support advisory system. This system is not only a novel approach in terms of its measurement and decision-support methods, but also because it is based on machine learning algorithms and thus constitutes a service. The algorithms are trained on a large, nationwide database, and thanks to machine learning, the quality of predictions continuously improves as the database expands. As a result, the system is capable of providing increasingly complex and reliable advice to producers and agricultural consultants.
Explore our guides, measurement protocols, and decision-support system – or get in touch with us to learn more and become part of this growing initiative!
Crop safety
IMPORTANCE OF
SOIL DEGRADATION
50% of our land has been eroded over the last 150 years, which has a significant impact on crop security. Another problem is that intensive farming practices cause 1% of soil to be lost from arable land each year. Successful farming on degraded soils is not only more costly, but also results in lower quality and financial costs.
Sustainable agriculture is based on a partial change from profit-oriented farming to soil management, where soil health is an important objective in the choice of agrotechnology. Proper soil management is an essential element of sustainable agriculture, climate regulation and a way to preserve ecosystem services and biodiversity.
In order to reverse these negative trends, it is necessary to increase the focus of agricultural practice on:
- Increasing the return of organic matter (animal and/or plant)
- Implement soil health monitoring
- Creating habitats and optimal living conditions for soil-dwelling organisms
- Use of mulch
- Increasing the area of field protection strips and tree groups
- Reducing compaction
- Well designed crop rotations
- And other technologies:
Processes, characteristics and indicators that improve soil health – many of which are directly or indirectly related to soil organic matter. There is virtually no other soil element that plays a role like organic matter in maintaining soil health. Organic matter in soils is, among other things:
- a source and reservoir of carbon and energy,
- adhesive – an important component of structural building,
- contributing to water and air management of soils,
- micro- and macro-nutrient storage, aiding root growth,
- buffering capacity reduces the impact of pollutants,
- reduces exposure to erosion and precipitation run-off,
- also, eases ground work.
To successfully start this organic matter-centered regenerative agriculture, many technologies and methodologies need to be tried and tested in the field. During the project, this large amount of information was systematised, algorithmised and translated into a decision support system that will enable farmers to successfully adopt new technologies in their own environment, alongside their farming practices.