About the research
Imagine a dense network of soil sensors that can be distributed over the agricultural field during primary field operation (i.e., seeding) and can continuously provide real-time soil fertility information throughout the cropping season for precision crop management. The sensors itself naturally degrade without releasing e-waste while reducing labour and energy costs.
The 4TU âGreen Sensorsâ project focuses on developing a new generation of soil sensor systems and network technologies that are biodegradable and must protect agricultural soils from e-waste, heavily occurred due to the use of active electronics in traditional sensor technologies, as an effective and affordable alternative to the current sensing systems. The use of densely distributed network of the proposed sensing technologies in smart applications of farming resources (i.e., fertilizer, water, etc.) aims to combat challenges in agricultural production due to population growth, climate change, resource depletion, and soil degradation.
Implementing biodegradable sensing systems for agriculture will be a ground-breaking advance in achieving sustainable agriculture, solving food shortage and hunger worldwide (UNâs SDG2), and âSoil health and foodâ mission of Horizon Europe framework. The proposed biodegradable sensing systems can bring sustainability for sensor fabrication, supply chain and waste management towards ecology-responsible industrial production.