- Soil technology must move beyond measurement and deliver action.
- Greater interoperability between soil data, AI and remote sensing will be critical.
- Field trials are testing whether real-time soil insights can improve efficiency and sustainability.
Soil measurement technologies have advanced significantly in recent years, reducing the long-standing trade-offs between speed, cost and accuracy, said Roozbeh Ravansari, chief executive of X-Centric Sciences.
“Traditional laboratory testing remains important, but emerging technologies are creating opportunities to gather a broader range of soil insights more quickly in the field. At X-Centric, we are exploring how ground-truthed soil intelligence can complement existing approaches and make timely soil information more accessible for agricultural decision-making.”
Looking ahead, Ravansari told AgNavigator that future soil-health technologies will combine more tools to provide a more complete picture of soil conditions.
“I expect soil technologies to become increasingly integrated, combining physical measurement with digital tools, AI and remote sensing to provide a more complete view of soil conditions,” said Ravansari.
The sector is sitting on an opportunity not just to help growers get data, but use it to inform decisions around inputs, productivity and long-term soil health.
Ravansari emphasised that obtaining data is only one piece of the puzzle.
“As these technologies mature, they are creating opportunities to collect information more quickly and more frequently. However, generating more data alone is unlikely to drive adoption.”
‘Greater interoperability’
For the sector to advance, Ravansari believes it will need greater integration between agricultural technologies, alongside more standardised approaches to collecting, interpreting and sharing farm data.
“Progress could mean greater interoperability and more consistent approaches to how agricultural data is collected, interpreted and shared. Physical soil measurements will remain important, but there is also significant potential in combining ground-truthed data with tools such as AI and remote sensing.”
The value of these technologies will ultimately depend on their ability to translate data into actionable insights, Ravansari said.
“If these systems can provide growers with timely, actionable insights rather than simply more data, they could support more informed farm management at scale. Continued investment, validation and collaboration across the agricultural ecosystem will be important to getting there.”
Better soil intelligence needed
Against a backdrop of volatile input costs, growers are under increasing pressure to optimise fertiliser use and resource allocation.
“When fertiliser and other input costs are under pressure, growers have an even greater incentive to understand what their soils need and where resources can be used most effectively,” said Ravansari.
“Better soil intelligence can support more informed fertiliser and crop-management decisions, although the appropriate approach will vary depending on local soil conditions, farming systems and other agronomic factors.”
On-the-ground perspective
X-Centric Sciences’ ongoing collaboration with food major PepsiCo is highlighting the promise and limitations of integrated soil-health technology.
The partnership is exploring how real-time soil data could inform farm-level decision-making in real operating environments.
“The collaboration has focused on understanding how information on indicators such as macro- and micronutrients, along with pH and soil carbon levels, could be used alongside existing agronomic practices to inform and influence our precision nutrient programmes,” said Colin Matthews, APAC agronomy lead at PepsiCo.
Matthews said much of the value of the collaboration has come from the on-the-ground learning.
“An important outcome of the work so far has been the practical learning that comes from testing a technology in the field: understanding how the equipment performs across different conditions, how useful and actionable the resultant data is for our farming teams, and what would be required to integrate it into existing ways of working,” said Matthews.
“Over time, and when deployed at scale, we anticipate positively impacting outcomes in areas such as efficient resource use, improved cost efficiencies and enhanced sustainability outcomes. Those are areas we continue to evaluate rather than outcomes we would claim at this stage.”
