Agri-Tech Growth Fund grant for innovative soil sampling app

Agri-Tech Growth Fund grant for innovative soil sampling app

Keith Mount Liming, a sixth-generation agricultural business based in Bury St Edmunds, has been awarded a £12,500 grant by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority.

The grant, which is part of the Agri-Tech Growth Fund, will be used to create a soil nutrient data-logging app, with the ability to upload real-time data linked to GPS coordinates.

The app will collect data such as pH levels, soil type, moisture, temperature and soil compactions. An algorithm within the app will calculate different recommended application rates of lime within specified areas of the field, tailored to the exact requirements of that soil.

Keith Mount Liming provides a range of agricultural lime, gypsum, fertilisers, fibrophos and compost from 35 different locations around the UK.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Agri-Tech Programme Manager, Martin Lutman, said: “This technology will not only improve the service that Keith Mount Liming Ltd can offer to farmers, but will make a real difference in helping farmers manage their soil nutrients based on accurate data and is the type of project the Eastern Agri-Tech Grants Programme was set up to support.”

Andrew Mount, MD, Keith Mount Liming Ltd, said: “Being awarded this grant has meant that we have been able to fast track our route to this technology. We will now have a bespoke technical solution and huge time savings for our agronomic reporting process, allowing us to develop other areas of the business. Going forward we will also be able to market this new technology to similar entities around the world.”

The Eastern Agri-Tech Growth Initiative is run by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority with support from New Anglia LEP, Norfolk County Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, and the local authorities covering this area.

Grants are available to organisations looking to invest in specialist equipment, new market and supply chain development, ways to improve productivity and efficiency, and the application and commercialisation of Research and Development.