Agri-EPI Centre

Shamal Mohammed
CTO
 Our purpose
Agri-EPI Centre Vision
A world where precision agriculture technologies, systems and ecosystems are optimised in order to maximise
the Agri-tech sector’s contribution to sustainable food production and supply.

Agri-EPI Centre Mission

To be the go-to enabler of innovation in precision agriculture, creating the opportunities and environment to
advance new engineering technologies that provide integrated solutions to the key UK and global agri-food
challenges, accelerating their uptake and boosting productivity.

Science
Agri-EPI Agriculture
and
Centre Practice
Technology
 Engineering, Precision & Innovation
for Sustainable Food Production
Ag Robotics & Precision Crop Precision Precision
Ag Engineering Technologies Livestock Farming Farming Data
Satellite Farms Home & Abroad
& Aquaculture
Dairy & Aquaculture

Midlands Hub Southern Hub South West, Midlands & Satellite Farm Network
Northern Hub

Driving growth - Enabling innovation for a profitable & sustainable Agricultural Value Chain
Assets and core partners

Link
Membership:
engaging industry with research

Over 120 companies and counting

Capital facilities
• Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation Hub: offices, labs, workshops and
incubation facilities
•
Plant Phenotyping and Soil Health Facility at Southern Hub: co-funded
and shared with CHAP and occupancy of Informatics building opening
Spring 2020

• Northern Hub: co-located with CIEL (opens December 2019)

• Dairy Development Centres: South West Dairy Development Centre in

Somerset and dairy research facilities at Harper Adams and SRUC
Dairy Development Centres
Harnessing the power of sensor technology, combined with
state of the art housing and precision grazing to optimize
cow welfare and productivity
• South West Dairy Development Centre –
fully autonomous
• Midlands Dairy Centre – focus on animal/environment
interaction
• Northern Youngstock facility –
focus on health and performance of
youngstock cattle
SmartFarm Network

• Test beds for research, development and demonstration

• 28 member farms
• All agricultural sectors
• Incubating & demonstrating emerging technology in the
agri-tech sector
• Farm focused research
• Working in partnership / collaboration
• Identifying and breaking down barriers to productivity
• Knowledge Exchange – internal and external
How technologies/practices can
contribute to climate change
adaptation and mitigation?
The current UK agricultural GHG inventory
Britain’s Climate Change Act of 2008 introduced the world’s
first long-term national framework to tackle climate change,
setting a legally binding target of an 80% reduction in GHG
emissions by 2050, against a 1990 baseline.

Agricultural emissions have decreased by 16% overall since

1990

British agricultural GHG emissions in 2017 were 45.6 million

tonnes of CO2 equivalent (10% of UK total GHG emissions).
Productive efficiency

Productive efficiency measures could deliver

estimated GHG savings of 11.5 Mt CO2e/year

Precision farming for crops to deliver nutrients and

crop protection more efficiently
Yield limitation and N application
Crop Yield from 6 to 11 t/ha

Nitrogen requirement from 100 to 360 kgN/ha

Data – Insight - Decision
1t/ha below average

0.5t/ha above average

Yield limiting factor?
Variable rate application of N
Variable rate application N and GHG emission
• A study by Lenerts et al (2016) showed that a very significant improvement in N application using

variable rate strategy using precision technologies

• By applying the variable rate N fertiliser application technology in the field during the experiment, the

consumption of fertiliser per ha decreased by 8%.

• The CO2 emissions from N fertilizer application per unit of products produced, decreased by 7%,

compared with the constant rate N fertiliser application technology.

Recommendations

A national scheme (supported by government funding) to promote the

uptake of the new technologies, providing finance and practical guideline to
help the farmers and demonstrate the economic and environmental value of
these technologies in maximizing productivity (profitability) and reducing
environmental footprint.

Agri-EPI provides a new model to lead digital transformation and adoption of

smart technologies in food production system that can help farmers and
growers to improve the efficiency and reduce environment impact
Thanks you

Dr Shamal Mohammed
PhD, MSc, BSc, PgDip, M.I. Soil Sci.

Chief Technical Officer

Agri-EPI Centre
T: 00447538549910
E: shamal.mohammed@agri-epicentre.com shamal.mohammed@agri-epicentre.com