Making sense of carbon sequestration – Cambridge Consultants at REAP 2022
Agri-TechE 
Carbon sequestration – where carbon dioxide is taken out of the air and stored – could potentially be a new source of revenue for landowners if there are reliable ways of measuring carbon uptake.
Cambridge Consultants will be talking about this issue in the Technology Exhibition at REAP 2022. They recently produced the report ‘Driving Net Zero – is agri-tech ready to capture carbon’ , by Niall Mottram and Simon Jordan, which investigates the technologies available and explores the concept of a digital twin for farmland.
Measuring carbon sequestration in an economically viable way
Simon comments: “As many know, agriculture is the only industry in the world with the potential to be carbon negative and offers a tantalising possibility of new revenue for farmers. But to realise the full potential, we need traceability regarding regenerative agriculture practices, as well as combining modern techniques (for carbon measurement) and data science in an economically viable way.”
Plants sequester carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, converting it into carbohydrates in roots, stems, leaves and fruit. If the crop is perennial, such as grassland or fruit trees, then carbon is locked in for a period of time, but for annual crops the storage is transitionary. Another way of locking up carbon for longer periods is by adding products like biochar or basalt to the soil.
Proving that the carbon is stored for a given period of time and that the amount sequestered is more than would occur anyway requires accurate sensors and an audit trail. The report discusses the design for these elements. Automating the measurement of carbon uptake in an economically viable way would enable the development of new services.
The report is available from Cambridge Consultants’ website here.
Improving development of autonomous vehicles
Another challenge for the agri-food industry is increasing autonomy in unstructured environments just as fields.
A major limiting factor when developing autonomous robots is the volume of training data required. Cambridge Consultants has developed an algorithm that overcomes this problem by offering a highly equivalent simulation – a three dimensional environment that is incredibly life-like.
In this video, Consultant Niall Mottram, Head of Industrial and Energy, explains how the advanced simulation has the potential to accelerate development of autonomous systems.
REAP 2022: ‘Making Sense of Agriculture’ – Tuesday 8th November 2022
From yield mapping and precision livestock through to digital twins and cloud computing, at REAP 2022 we will be exploring the technology and looking at the implications from a field to landscape level. Making technology farm-centric is core to Agri-TechE ’s mission so a key feature of the conference will be a panel of farmers and producers discussing the emerging technologies and future scenarios.
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