Maximizing the Benefits of Organic Fertilizers: A Data-Driven Approach to Improve Efficiency and Reduce Pollution
At a glance
- Project leader : Dr. Martin Schüle
- Co-project leader : Hélène Iven
- Project team : Adrian Rutzer
- Project status : completed
- Funding partner : Internal (ZHAW Sustainable Impact Program)
- Project partner : Digit Soil AG
- Contact person : Martin Schüle
Description
The project aims at assessing the use of soil enzymatic activity to improve the use efficiency of nitrogen in agriculture to fulfill environmental goals and climate targets. We work together with ETH spin-off Digit Soil who already developed a device measuring on-site biological activity, an important soil process responsible for the transformation of soil nutrients.
The current soil-agronomic models have until now used default values which were not calibrated for the site. This project is meant as a proof-of-concept to assess if soil enzymatic activity improves the accuracy of current soil-agronomic models and could be used in the future to improve fertilizer application planning.