Data-led soil management for low income farmers

Soil degradation is 'one of the most pressing problems facing humanity' and disproportionately impacts smallholder farmers in developing countries (FAO, 2015). Due to cost and accessibility barriers, these farmers lack access to effective tools to combat this threat. Sireet, a smallholder tea cooperative in Kenya exemplifies this problem - 57% of their farmers lack access to the tools needed to mitigate soil degradation and less than 1% of farmers have access to basic soil testing.

During a previously funded Innovate feasibility study (109338-630625) the partners in this consortium successfully demonstrated a soil management advisory service, which leveraged mobile technology and scientific modelling to provide cost effective and accessible fertiliser scheduling to smallholder farmers.

The vision of this project is to build on this foundation by creating a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform to deliver this service at scale. The service will combine soil test data with field specific contextual data and agro-meteorological data. This data will then be fed through a tea growth and quality simulation model, called CUPPA-Tea, developed by Cranfield University. This model will automatically output fertiliser schedules tailored for individual farmers. Optimising fertiliser and harvesting schedules can improve tea quality and substantially increase (\>50%) yield and revenues for smallholder tea producers.

Key objectives will be the development of this SaaS platform, development of the scientific algorithms and trialing the service at a smallholder tea cooperative in Kenya.

The innovative service developed during this project will be the first soil management service designed specifically for smallholder agriculture. It also represents a significant opportunity to increase Climate Edge's competitiveness by enabling it to access a historically underserved market helping smallholders adapt to climate change and mitigate soil degradation.