Agri-Tech company Farmeye have launched their new system for soil nutrient management, the NMP Portal.
This online tool will allow farmers and agri-consultants to monitor the results of soil fertility tests by region using a simple map based system.
With this knowledge farmers will be able to optimise their soil fertility, and save money in fertiltiser bills.
Farmeye CEO Dr Eoghan Finneran explained the Farmeye mission, “A huge amount of data is collected on farms and much of that is either lost or misused.”
“For example, half a million soil tests have been taken over the past 10 years and the vast majority of those reports are buried in biscuit tins or lie forgotten in filing cabinets.”
Farmeye is providing digital solutions to put all that data to practical work for soil management, the farmer, and the environment.
They say that poor soil management is costing Irish farmers up to €9,000 a year in lost productivity and fertiliser bills.
Their goal is to provide tools that will let famers make “efficient, data-driven decisions on the hoof when it comes to efficient fertiliser and slurry management.”
“We in Ireland have a good news story to tell the world about the sustainability of our grass-fed meat and dairy produce, but without efficient management of farm-level data that story gets lost.” Dr Finneran said.
This NUI Galway spin out company hopes to add ten positions over the next three years and additional side business as it expands.
Enterprise Ireland funded their initial development work at NUI Galway through a Commercialisation Fund programme.
This programme co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
Company Co-Founder and Business Manager, Brendan Allen said that while soil management is their focus for now, Farmeye plans to expands into other areas of farm sustainability.
“We have a development plan in Farmeye to become the foremost provider of IT for monitoring and managing sustainability metrics at farm level.”
“And sustainability of our food production is about more than just environmental sustainability,” he added
“Social and economic sustainability are the other two legs on the sustainability stool and without any of the three, the whole system falls down.”
The increases age of farmers and the decline in farm income are unsustainable trends right across Europe, Brendan insists.
“The key to ensuring a secure and sustainable food supply for the next generation is to put these tools on the farm, to measure these metrics and then take steps to address the weakness in the system, whether that be in nutrient management or food supply-chain management.”
