Our key aim as an Institute is to support and enhance productivity, efficiency and sustainability in food and farming.

We are involved in global research projects looking at the availability of water and its impact on agricultural productivity. Last month, we welcomed eminent Chinese scientist, Shibo Fang, to the University of Lincoln to share some of his current findings from the project which seeks to develop Agri-Tech solutions to help alleviate the issue of water availability in agriculture, and for producers to ultimately drive water use efficiency.

Currently, there is no system to measure soil moisture distribution accurately across a field, and the resolution of remote sensing has not been sufficient for agricultural applications or for local water management to reduce flood risk. The project will deploy two new sensors (one static, one mobile) within China that measure soil moisture content as a function of the albedo of cosmically generated fast neutrons (COSMOS sensor, designed by Hydroinova, US).

The project coordinates the expertise of the following key groups:

• Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology– University of Lincoln (Robotics, mapping and deployment of autonomous vehicles)
• Institute of Ecology and Agrometeorology (IEAM)- Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences
• Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Wallingford)- University of Information Science & Technology
• School of Geography and Earth Sciences– University of Aberystwyth

Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) – Newton Fund: Earth Observation, Modelling and Autonomous Systems For Agri-Tech In China, 2016-19.

You can read more information about this our Institute’s involvement with this project online.