Feeding the future: Using Agtech to sustainably feed a growing world population
Innovative research supports increasing population in a sustainable and nutritious way.
By 2050, there is anticipated to be another 2 billion people on the planet. With an ever-growing population we need to be able to grow more food on less available land and be efficient with the resources we have.
While this presents a challenge, it also creates opportunities to develop new agricultural technology that can support food production while also keeping the land and sea healthy.
The 70% increase in food production that will be needed requires innovative technological solutions to make sure it is sustainable and healthy for the planet as well as for the people.
“There’s a huge opportunity for us to use Agtech going forward,” says Dr Brendon Malcolm, Team Leader Soil Function and Health at Plant & Food Research. The Farm2050 Nutrient Technology Trialling Platform (NTTP) project brings together scientists, startups, and investment companies to ensure that new Agtech has robust science behind it, so when it gets adopted broadly for on-farm use we can be confident in the technology.
The global Farm2050 Initiative — established in 2014 — is focusing on three technologies for the next year through the NTTP project, with Plant & Food Research trialling them in Aotearoa New Zealand to provide independently verified evidence of their efficacy. These technologies — developed by, Cropx Limited, Tnue, and Pastoral Robotics — all aim to improve nutrient use on farm and help avoid problems caused by nitrate leaching, in different ways.
Plants love nitrate (one of the plantavailable forms of nitrogen), and it is a key nutrient for rapid plant growth. The issue occurs when there is too much nitrate in the soil for plants to take up all of it.
When it rains, excess nitrogen can be flushed out into the groundwater and end up in our waterways, where it then contributes to algae blooms that can damage or destroy the freshwater ecosystem.
“All of the Farm 2050 technologies address essentially trying to be more efficient with our resources, targeting nutrient use and efficiency” says Malcolm. “Whether it’s about measuring nutrients or applying nutrients in a more efficient way.”
The first stage is testing the technology under tightly controlled conditions. The next stage — and the current stage of the project — is looking at spatial and temporal scales where there is inherently more natural variability to deal with. The third phase, should all criteria for potential success be met, is on-farm demonstration at a large scale.
“Some companies have done a lot of background testing already,” Malcolm says. “We don’t want to duplicate work for the sake of it but we’re wanting to be sure that the right science has been done, and then we scale up our research from there.”
Cropx is an agronomic farm management system that combines farm data, real-time conditions and agronomic knowledge to provide insights for farm operations. One use of the Cropx technology is continuous monitoring for nitrogen leaching, using data from
“All of the Farm 2050 technologies address essentially trying to be more efficient with our resources, targeting nutrient use and efficiency”
the Cropx soil sensor that measures soil moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity (measure of the salts in the soil). “Testing the electrical conductivity can give us an idea of how much nitrate is moving through the soil,” says Malcolm. “The electrical conductivity component combined with a proprietary algorithm can tell us if a leaching event has occurred.”
Tnue has developed control release membrane technology which increases the efficiency of existing nitrogen fertilisers. Plant & Food Research has already completed lab experiments, looking at how quickly the nitrogen is released from the membrane under different conditions, and is currently testing the ability of the product’s ability to control nitrogen release, and in turn, leaching in wet conditions.
“We could get different blends of the Tnue products, so we want to match the blends of nitrogen to the needs of the soil and crops,” says Malcolm.
The third innovation Plant & Food Research is trialling is technology developed by Pastoral Robotics. It’s a machine, called Spikey®, that travels on the ground behind a tractor, with electrical conductivity sensors on the spikes of the rotating discs. Spikey® helps address the main source of nitrate leaching on farms — cattle urine.
While nitrogen fertiliser could be spread evenly around a paddock, cattle tend to urinate spots. This causes a massive concentration of nitrogen in those areas, far more nitrate than plants can use. When heavy rains occur, the excess nitrogen can flush away into the groundwater.
Spikey® can detect the areas of urine on farms, treat them independently, and then selectively apply nitrogen only to the patches where grazing animals have not been urinating. “You don’t need nitrogen on those patches,” Malcolm says, “so this means we can be more efficient with nitrogen and protect the environment.”
The NTTP project of Farm2050 is supported by Finistere Ventures, with funding from Callaghan Innovation.
“The investment needed to do the proper science is not always easy for the companies to get hold of, so we’re grateful to Finistere and Callaghan for providing the funding needed,” says Malcolm.
“The Farm2050 initiative is very valuable, bringing together the scientists, investors, and companies to collaborate and effectively do the science that is needed, to show the worth of Agtech.”
Plant & Food Research conducts research across the full food value chain, using science to create a smart green future for Aotearoa New Zealand and the world. ■
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