Measuring and monitoring farm sustainability from space

Farmeye provide simple, easy-to-use tools that allow the farmer to make efficient, data-driven decisions when it comes to efficient fertiliser and slurry management

Farmeye co-founders and the team at a recent team meeting in the Athlone Springs Hotel.

Farmeye, a Roscommon-based agri-tech company providing digital farm soil-management solutions, is catering to the growing interest amongst farmers to mitigate the effects of climate change through soil carbon analysis and mapping. 

Verifying and measuring soil health and carbon sequestration, the company’s technologies allow food producers and farmers to measure, monitor, and demonstrate the sustainability metrics of their farms. 

“The traceability aspect allows the food processor to stand over the provenance and sustainability of their products, while with Big Data analytics, farmers can get valuable and practical information about their soils with Farmeye,” says Dr Eoghan Finneran, CEO Farmeye. 

“We are delighted to have been selected as the Technology consortium partner for the National Soils Programme in Ireland. 

"Our farm mapping, GPS tracking and data management allow this programme to develop insights for both farmers and the overall Agri-Food sector.” 

This is the first of a new wave of evidence-based programmes that leverage big-data to benefit farmers, industry and the environment. 

Dr Finneran explained the Farmeye mission: “A huge amount of data is collected on farms and much of that is either lost or mis-used.”

For example, a half a million soil tests have been taken over the past 10 years and the vast majority of those reports are buried in biscuit tins or lie forgotten in filing cabinets. 

Farmeye provide digital solutions to capture that data and put it to work in a practical, usable manner for the soils, for the farmer and the environment. 

“We in Ireland have a good news story to tell the world about the sustainability of our grass-fed meat and dairy produce, but without efficient management of farm-level data that story gets lost. 

"The Farmeye portal provides the first digital step to demonstrate sustainable soil management and quantify carbon sequestration.”

He pointed out that the average Irish dairy farmer could lose €9,000 per year in lost productivity and extra fertiliser bills, solely due to sub-optimal soil fertility. 

“Farmeye provide simple, easy-to-use tools that allow the farmer to make efficient, data-driven decisions on the hoof when it comes to efficient fertiliser and slurry management.” 

As hedgerows cover 6% of Ireland, Farmeye proposed using space technology to monitor their biodiversity and carbon sequestration value.

To that end, the company last year secured a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to measure hedgerow carbon and habitat value using space technology. 

The Farmeye project sets out to measure hedgerow carbon and habitat value using a range of space assets including satellite imagery.

Farmeye is working with the ESA’s Space Solutions branch, which focuses on working with companies to create commercially sustainable services by using space data and technology.

Space Solutions announced the Responsible AgriTech Kick-start Initiative towards the end of 2020, inviting proposals specifically for innovations in agriculture. 

“We all know the focus on carbon sequestration and habitats at a farm level, however, accurate and scalable measurement of these features will be essential to farmers to mitigate their impacts of production,” said Dr Finneran. 

“We chose hedgerows as the focus for this project as they are a dominant but undervalued feature of western European farms. 

"This is particularly the case in Ireland where they cover 6% of the land area, yet farmers are not given any credit for the biodiversity and carbon sequestration value of these hedges and treelines.” 

He underlined the project’s potential benefits for farmers, adding it would also help with increasing carbon stock and biodiversity on farms. 

“We have been working for over four years now with Ireland’s most prominent agri-corporates on soil health programmes and have been using digitalisation as a powerful tool to manage farm-level data. 

"This is just the next phase of our development and we are delighted to be involved with ESA Space Solutions.”