AI 4 SOIL HEALTH
Harnessing AI to enable land managers to measure soil health
As part of the EU’s Soil Health Mission AI 4 Soil Health is creating and maintaining an open access European-wide digital infrastructure, compiled using state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods and new deep soil health understanding and measures.
Soil health across Europe is under threat
A transition to a sustainable future is possible. But the risk of innovation to land managers is high. We need to understand which farming practices work, and which do not, to protect the environment and make businesses more resilient in the face of changing times.
Helping Farmers measure soil health
AI 4 Soil Health will help farmers and land managers to measure soil health without the need for laboratories. Additionally, we want to help policy makers examine the changes they make in agriculture, giving them up-to-date modelling on their plans and reliable data on the impact they’re making. The climate crisis leaves little room for mistakes as soil is complex – so we need the ability to map changes into the future and make the right policies for the right region.
We want every farmer to be able to do their own on-farm experimentation into soil health
Using digital technology to improve soil health
AI 4 Soil Health is at the forefront of working with stakeholders to co-design, create and harness digital technology to support pan European efforts to halt and reverse soil health decline. We want to achieve a world where every farmer can do their own on- farm experimentation into soil health. This means using the latest scientific expertise to build the digital infrastructure to support them so they can innovate and track their actions in real-time.
Creating a free app
A soil health measurement app will be launched by 2026. It will harness the emerging potential of AI, integrating new technologies such as digital twins and satellite mapping to give it powerful predictive and analytic capabilities. It will combine the latest soil health measurement techniques using an index of internationally agreed indicators to create a user-friendly platform which will make on-farm decisions easier.
"Only farmers and land managers are the agents of change in a landscape. As an open-source community of researchers, we hope that by surfacing existing and cutting-edge soil information through space and time, we can cultivate an environment of self-determination for farmers, to the benefit of all our children."
Ichsani Wheeler, OpenGeoHub Foundation
Ichsani Wheeler, OpenGeoHub Foundation
Who are we?
We are researchers, charities and companies from across Europe with leading expertise in soil health science.
Pilot sites will be run in: Spain, Wales, France, Greece, Netherlands, Croatia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Italy. They will help us to test our principles on the ground and bring together a diverse range of stakeholders across 11 countries covering 11 of the 13 pedo-climatic regions in Europe.
Get involved
To find out more or to get involved, see ai4soilhealth.eu.
Funded by the European Union
This work has received funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee.