Farm PEP

The Farm PEP project aims to facilitate knowledge creation, data management and knowledge sharing for agricultural practitioners across the country, using new digital tools that are created with farmers in mind.

As we enter our second year, and to make sure stakeholder needs are directing the process, we are reaching out to farmers and advisors at each stage of the process to understand what is needed.

Sharing and creating knowledge across geographical areas

Farm PEP’s first goal was to create a space where everyone across the industry could share knowledge. This was started in a previous Innovate UK project with an online knowledge exchange platform developed at www.FarmPEP.net where people can share information about their organisations, projects and any resources they find useful. These are connected across Topics, with each Topic ultimately having a Wikipedia style summary of what works and where to find out more.

Anyone can join and there are already 600 members registered, alongside 150 organisations, looking at over 150 projects covering 200 topics. Since the website is run on a continual-improvement ethos, and to make sure it works for you we’d like to hear your thoughts about it.

Join our online feedback workshop (details to be announced) or share your ideas with Research Consultant Susie Roques (Susie.roques@adas.co.uk).

On farm trials and expert support

Farm PEP aims to go beyond just knowledge sharing: we want to support farmers, advisors and organisations who want to actively create knowledge, share it and use on that knowledge effectively to make on-farm decisions. To do so, we are currently working on a 2-stage approach:

On-farm trials

Farm PEP has been developing a series of on-farm trials, in partnership with project member AICC, with a double aim: to test input reduction ideas and support farmers and advisors in learning how to effectively run on-farm trials.

We have recently finished our first set of trials with the Crop Nutrition Clubs. Through these trials we expect to test ideas, learn how to co-create trials and develop resources for farmers to test their own ideas in on-farm trials.

If you're interested in joining these Crop Nutrition Club, find more information on the Farm PEP website. You can find some of the resources we have developed (www.farmpep.net/index.php/node/91); we will soon be uploading this season’s results focusing on nutrient inputs in the Crop Nutrition Club site on Farm PEP; and if you are interested in patch testing this autumn or spring, please contact Ana Allamand (aallamand@soilassociation.org).

Advisor support to develop effective co-innovation

Advisors are in a privileged position to spot trends and share ideas across their area of influence. They can also support farmers in developing on-farm trials by providing an external point of view. Based on our first round of on-farm trials (results will soon be available in the Crop Nutrition Club site on Farm PEP) we will be working with advisors to provide the tools required to co-create on-farm trials through workshops which will be run this winter. If you are interested in joining these, please let Ana know.

Leveraging data

Trial and general on-farm data are very useful in their specific context; they can also inform wider decision making when consolidated at an area level, suggesting trends and supporting knowledge on a wider level.

To make the most of both trials and on-farm data, Farm PEP has been developing two pieces of software:

On-farm trial software

Farm PEP has been working on a software that facilitates managing on-farm trials and dealing with yield map data into the ‘cloud’. We are developing the interface for farmers and advisors to view, manage and share trials online. After a year of work, we will be soon ready to present a first draft to interested agricultural practitioners this winter.

If you want to learn more and participating in our feedback sessions, please email Ana (aallamand@soilassociation.org).

Data set consolidation to allow benchmarking

Farm PEP has also been working on another software, this time one that brings data sets together to allow benchmarking. The goal is to be able to enable easy transfer of data from farm management software to this platform using ‘Pure Farming’; and then being able to compare against general trends. As with our on-farm trial software, we will be soon ready to present a first draft to interested agricultural practitioners this winter.

If you want to learn more and participating in our feedback sessions, please email Ana (aallamand@soilassociation.org).

Sharing the project

As we know, no matter how useful a project or platform is, it needs to be known to be used. That is why we have not only been developing these tools and workshops, but we have also been working to reach as many stakeholders in as many spaces as possible.

Farm PEP has ensured it engages with final users by leveraging its networks and organising workshops during the winter of 2021-2022. But it has also reached wider audiences through partners who have showcased it at important industry events, such as Groundswell, CEREALS and World Congress of Soil Science in Glasgow. It has also been highlighted in member events with a wide stakeholder impact, such as Innovative Farmers “10 Year Anniversary”.

As we enter our second year, we would like to invite anyone interested in learning more about our project to keep up with us by visiting www.farmpep.net.

We’d also really like to hear from you and get your feedback either on the website or on any of the sub-projects. If you’d like to participate in any of our workshops, please let us know by writing to Ana or keeping an eye on Innovative Farmers’ event page where we will be posting the series of workshops where we will present our different Work Packages work so far; and ask for feedback to make sure the final product responds to its final users needs.

Farm PEP partners