SoilTrac
The Future of Soil Health Monitoring
Soil Health
Soil Health is Critical for Precision Agriculture
The Importance of Soil Health
Soil health is an essential component of thriving, living ecosystem. It refers to the ability of the soil ecosystem to continually convert and provide necessary nutrients to support plant, animal and microbial growth while maintaining structure, biodiversity, and overall quality.
Soil Respiration
Principles of Soil Health
- Maximize Biodiversity
- Minimize Disturbance that disrupt biological, physical and chemical equilibria
- Maximize Presence of Living Roots
- Maximize Soil Cover
- Maintain soil respiration
An Important Indicator of Soil Health
Importance of Monitoring Soil Respiration
Soil respiration is an important indicator of soil health, reflecting the chemical and physical conditions within the soil environment of which soil aeration and moisture control are central pillars.
The ability to monitor soil respiration in a continuous, in-soil/field and real-time manner can greatly benefit the agricultural yields. Coupled with moisture monitoring will provide valuable information for optimal irrigation and addition of soil amendments.
Optimized Soil Amendments
South Africa is a net importer of fertilizer which equates to 0.5 % of global fertilizer use with a market value of ~ $ 1 billion. The South African fertilizer market is very competitive, and is driven through product differentiation and specialized services such as custom-blending and –application, which increasingly rely on real-time monitoring to allow interactive capability
Optimized Irrigation
Prevention of waterlogging through optimized irrigation (frequency and amount), is an important means to conserve water and increase crop yields.
Water logging is the saturation of soil with water that displaces air in soil and leads to oxygen deficiency, more alkaline conditions, and as a result, significantly reduced plant growth.
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SoilTrac
How SoilTrac can Assists with Soil Monitoring?
SoilTrac enables the monitoring, in real time, of soil respiration rates (microbial, microfauna and plant metabolic activity) and other physical parameters (temperature, soil moisture levels etc.) through the implementation of various sensors and cloud capabilities (Edge-to-Cloud Approach).
The patent pending innovation lies in the in-field measurement of respired CO₂.
In addition to monitoring soil respiration, the addition of the measurement of physicochemical parameters provide a modular platform that enables fit-for-purpose Precision Agriculture sensing.
Typical data obtained in a field plot using SoilTrac to monitor soil health, showing oscillation in soil respiration rates (CO₂; black lines) in response to daily irrigation (red arrows) and after fertilizer application (green vertical lines). Horizontal blue lines represent the average atmospheric CO2 concentration. (475 ppm), horizontal black line represents the average soil respiration (1050 ppm) and the green horizontal line represents the average soil respiration after application of fertilizers.
The SoilTrac Approach
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Proactive rather than reactive
Monitor
In situ, real-time monitoring of soil health is of utmost importance in precision agriculture. The collection and analysis of soil health data allows for trend analysis and proactive response to changes in soil health.
Amend
Real-time monitoring aids in identifying potential deviations from optimal operational parameters and amendments to soil can be made before major issues occur. Allowing cost-savings while being environmentally conscious.
Maintain
The ability to monitor and adjust soil health parameters allows for the maintenance of optimal operational parameters. The constant maintenance of soil health allows for better soil outcomes and productivity.
The ability of SoilTrac to Monitor, Amend and Maintain facilitates the migration from a reactive to proactive approach to soil health.
The SoilTrac system provides an affordable, easy-to-use and modular solution with remote monitoring and support. It aims to provide a tool for precise monitoring and informed decision making to improve soil health and thus agricultural outputs.
Contact us
for further inquiries
info@soiltrac.co.za
