I'm starting up a company called Soil Benchmark, looking to help farmers improve their soil health by enabling them to benchmark their existing soil data. Our thesis is that by aggregating existing soil data, as well as farm management and yield data, alongside a variety of other background datasets (eg rainfall, temperature, underlying soil maps, local water quality, biodiversity), and then analysing this data at scale, we can provide actionable farm management insights to improve soil health. As the dataset grows we will be able to leverage it to help the wider agri-food chain (supermarkets, DEFRA/ELMS, BigAg R&D, water companies, ag insurers) monitor and incentivise soil health.
We have been successful in our FIP research starter pilot EoI application, and are working with NIAB/ADAS/BGS on this DEFRA funded project to identify and interpolate the relevant background datasets required to contextualise on-farm data. Alongside this, we are looking to build out our Minimum Viable Product, working with a number of pilot farmers on a limited range of soil types, to test our thesis - ie see if we are indeed able to generate useful insights by analysing farm soil data at scale.
