Challenge
By 2030, 100 soil health living labs (LLs) and lighthouses will be established, as per the mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”. Farmers worldwide also possess their own experiences in regenerative agriculture. These labs and farmers remain isolated, hindering the discovery, access, and replication of knowledge and best practices across labs and farmers. Similarly, although there is a growing availability of data thanks to advances in IoT, AI and Big Data technologies, among others, data is usually available in different format and represented according to different data models hindering its interoperability and reusability. Additionally, regenerative agriculture practices and their effectiveness, such as intercropping and cover cropping, are location-specific due to variations in soil types, climate conditions, and ecological characteristics. This variability poses challenges in generalising or exporting practices without significant adaptations.
Approach
To address these issues, the project will establish a consolidated virtual living lab using digital twin (DT), dataspace, blockchain, and AI technologies. The platform will enable real-time data sharing and collaboration among farmers and labs, facilitating the exchange of regenerative agriculture practices across diverse environments and generating farm-specific recommendations.
The technology objectives are as follows:
- To develop a decentralised digital twin platform for promoting best practices and knowledge sharing for regenerative agriculture practices. The platform will allow farmers and living labs to create and manage their DTs containing multimodal temporal-spatial field data and field specific practices and knowledges, such as DTs for modelling reduced tillage, inter or cover cropping, and microbiome impacts. The platform will monetise the DT usage, trace the usage trajectories and patterns for analytics, and enable autonomous trusted collaboration between labs and/or farms.
- To develop low-cost AI driven tools to measure indicators of soil health and diversity towards localization of regenerative agriculture practices to specific agroecological context. Selected sensors, for instance, smartphones, NPK sensors, IR sensors for pollinators and multi-spectral drone cameras, will be used to measure soil health indicators. AI based data correlation tools will be developed to enable, discover, access, and replicate best practices in different soil health living labs. The tools will encourage evidence-based adoption of regenerative agriculture.
- To develop a standardized interoperable framework to improve knowledge exchange and reusability of effective regenerative agricultural practices, including establishing standardised vocabularies and semantics, common data formats, and data protocols for seamless sharing and exchange of farm data across platforms. It will leverage existing standards and models like AIM, based on OGC and W3C, and extend and adapt them if necessary. Existing tools for data integration and harmonisation will be customized to ensure interoperable data feeding the digital twins. Robust Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) aligned with standards like OGC APIs will enable smooth integration and functionality across diverse platforms and users.
- Pilot development and farmer engagement - to create digital twins of farms and living labs in Poland, Finland and Ireland. Thus, the consortium will apply the developed technologies in practice by involving relevant stakeholders.
The key impacts of the project include:
- Enhanced Collaboration: The platform will serve as a collaborative space for sharing insights and strategies, accelerating the adoption of regenerative practices - EUSO, SOILCRATES, and other living labs through SOILL and SOILL startup, individual farmers and open field research facilities associated with educational institutions.
- Localized Solutions: The platform will help farmers implement sustainable practices that are most effective for their specific conditions.
- Ecological Impact: The project will promote practices that restore soil health, increase beneficial biodiversity/abundance of beneficial soil microbes and fauna, and optimize resource utilization, ultimately contributing to monitoring of impacts of specific practices on ecosystem services.
Keywords
Virtual living labs, digital twin, knowledge and data sharing, localised regenerative agriculture, agroecological context aware query
Project coordinator
Dr Yuansong Qiao, Technological University of the Shannon, Ireland
Partners
- POLAND: Dr Raul Palma, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry PAN, Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Centre
- FINLAND: Dr Nathaniel Narra, Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK)
- POLAND: Mr Andrzej Słomczewski, CGFP Sp. z o.o.
Funding institutions
- Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, Ireland
- The National Centre for Research and Development, Poland
- Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Finland
Project duration
36 Months
Challenge
By 2030, 100 soil health living labs (LLs) and lighthouses will be established, as per the mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”. Farmers worldwide also possess their own experiences in regenerative agriculture. These labs and farmers remain isolated, hindering the discovery, access, and replication of knowledge and best practices across labs and farmers. Similarly, although there is a growing availability of data thanks to advances in IoT, AI and Big Data technologies, among others, data is usually available in different format and represented according to different data models hindering its interoperability and reusability. Additionally, regenerative agriculture practices and their effectiveness, such as intercropping and cover cropping, are location-specific due to variations in soil types, climate conditions, and ecological characteristics. This variability poses challenges in generalising or exporting practices without significant adaptations.
Approach
To address these issues, the project will establish a consolidated virtual living lab using digital twin (DT), dataspace, blockchain, and AI technologies. The platform will enable real-time data sharing and collaboration among farmers and labs, facilitating the exchange of regenerative agriculture practices across diverse environments and generating farm-specific recommendations.
The technology objectives are as follows:
The key impacts of the project include:
Keywords
Virtual living labs, digital twin, knowledge and data sharing, localised regenerative agriculture, agroecological context aware query
Project coordinator
Dr Yuansong Qiao, Technological University of the Shannon, Ireland
Partners
Funding institutions
Project duration
36 Months