Sustainable Innovation Pilot 6

Applying soil-passport approach and precision farming technologies in Slovenia to increase soil health and sustainability as a whole. - Slovenia

Soil health is very important for food production and preservation of nature in general. Traditional techniques of soil sampling, analysing and preparation of respective fertilization plans as well as the traditional agricultural practices in the field, are resulting in irrational use of phyto-products and fertilizers and as consequence
degradation of soil health.

Challenge: For increasing efficiency of soil treatment and thus increasing soil health, new technologies need to be introduced for optimised fertilisation, as well as innovative approaches such as a soil-passport centered system, which is rewarding farmers for maintaining or improving soil health.

Sustainable innovation pilots activities:

Define a soil-passport approach for Slovenian farmers and introduce precision farming to support the optimal preparation and fertilization applications, combining different types of technologies and data sources:

(a) satellite and drone imagery for plant anomaly detection

(b) soil sampling data for detecting fertilization needs,

(c) fertilization plans which will be prepared in e-service platform and in a format that farmers can import them in the farming machinery for precision fertilization. All data will be provided as evidence for the soil certificate that will be designed as part of the soil-passport methodology that will be developed and tested. The overall soil passport
approach will be evaluated and introduced to relevant stakeholders as possible upgrade of existing practices, motivating farmers to systematically improve soil health.