Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SARMENTI (Smart multisensor embedded and secure system for soil nutrient and gaseous emission monitoring) Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project Among the unsustainability factors in agriculture, the overuse of chemical fertilisers in agriculture has a negative environmental impact, specifically, losses of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) to the aquatic environment and an estimated 18% of land is affected by N and P contamination. However, these compounds, either provided by organic or chemical fertilisers, are needed to replace nutrients removed during farming (crops, grass) and to increase productivity. Innovative technologies for smart agriculture will play an increasing role in monitoring farming conditions and will definitively make a positive change by enhancing the effectiveness of fertilisation while minimising the environmental impact, thus helping the farmers answer the “Farm-to-Fork” ambitions regarding nutrient losses and fertiliser use.SARMENTI developed an Electronic Smart System (ESS) connected to the IoT that helps the farmer monitor soil nutrients that have a direct impact on plant growth, on agricultural production, and on the farmer’s income. The system also monitors environment parameters, i.e. temperature, humidity, and gaseous emissions from fertilised soils arising from microbial interactions between added fertilisers, manures and soil organic matter. The SARMENTI project contributes to the GreenDeal strategy, especially on the farm-to-fork objectives related to nutrient losses and fertiliser use.SARMENTI addressed the following key challenges: - Improve selectivity, sensitivity, precision and fabrication cost of existing state-of-the-art sensors, while maintaining their functionality for a long period of use either in the soil or in the air. The partners bring to the project different cutting-edge electrochemical sensors (nanowire and potentiometric) sensitive to the concentration of soil nutrients in a liquid. They also bring environmental sensors, especially to measure the concentration of gases released in the bio-chemical cycle of natural manure. These sensors require advances to enable real time in situ soil nutrients analysis. - Integrate some sensors in a multi-sensor frontend modules able to monitor different nutrients or environmental parameters and placed for long periods of time (ideally the whole crop duration) in difficult outdoor conditions and even buried in the case of the Soil Probe; - Develop an appropriate packaging to increase the lifetime of the sensors, to efficiently sample the soil moisture or the surrounding air and decrease the system power consumption; - Guarantee the integrity of electronic components and data against attempts to bring down or take advantage of the system in an unauthorized manner, by the development of a secure IoT node and its integration with secure connectivity. By addressing these challenges, SARMENTI developed a real-time and in situ, easy-to-access, connected and cost-effective system for soil nutrients sensing (incl. N and P) that, for the first time, provided real time understanding of temporal changing soil conditions and permited precise dosing of agro-chemicals, leading to substantial improvement in fertilisation (“4R strategy”). This system complements existing spectroscopy solutions and provides decision support to the farmers regarding fertilisation thus providing farming stakeholders with the technology to conform with EU policies, such as, the Nitrates (91/676/EEC) and water frameworks (2000/60/EC) directives. The SARMENTI system also monitors different gases having health and environmental impacts, making the farmer aware of the current gaseous emissions on his land. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far During the third reporting period (M37-M48), further activities have been conducted to mature the soil sensors and test them in pot experiment. The complete system delivered to Terrasolis (TS) and SPIRO has been tested (D4.7) in the field and the user’s guide has been updated to support the deployment of SARMENTI solution. The complete functional system delivered to WP6 has been deployed in the field in TS premises and SPIRO premises (D6.4). The validation activities in TS premises has been conducted with the user’s smartphone Application while the SPIRO validation has been conducted with the use of the Decision Support Tool. The exploitation strategy, exploration of business opportunities has been updated (D7.7). Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) In its farm-to-fork strategy, the EU has fixed ambitious objectives and targets, in particular- Reduce nutrient losses by 50%, which will reduce the use of fertilisers by at least 20% by 2030, while ensuring no deterioration on soil fertility;- Address pollution of air, soil and water that should be decreased towards 0, excess of nutrients in the environment being a major source of air, soil and water pollution, negatively impacting biodiversity and climate while pesticides in agriculture contributes to pollution of soil, water and air. Farmers play a central role in meeting these objectives, and the deployment of Agri4.0 technology such as developed in SARMENTI will provide an insight in their land, especially regarding fertilisation needs, while they shall comply with actual and forthcoming EU policies. Concurrently, citizens’ request and regulations imposed by the EU and each State promote the drive for healthier and more sustainably produced food. logo
