First sensors provided to the Innovate UK funded NCS project

Plenty Sense is pleased to announce that we have provided the first sensors to the Innovate UK funded NCS project. The Nitrogen Efficient Plants for Climate Smart Arable Cropping Systems (NCS) is a four-year £5.9M research programme involving 200 UK farms and 17 partners. The NCS Project is funded by the Farming Futures R&D Fund: Climate smart farming, part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme. Defra are working in partnership with Innovate UK who are delivering the programme.

The NCS project is set to revolutionise on-farm carbon footprints by delivering more than half of the GHG emissions reduction target for UK agriculture, delivering a reduction of 1.5Mt CO2e per annum or 54% of the maximum potential for the industry. The ambitions of the project are to increase pulse and legume cropping in arable rotations to 20% across the UK and to develop and test new feed rations. This will help livestock farmers to substitute up to 50% of imported soya meal used in feed with more climate-friendly home-grown pulses and legumes.

The Plenty Sense nitrate sensors will enable the project to accurately measure the available soil nitrogen and follow trends over time of the project.