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With one test, we provide 12+ biological and non-biological indicators used for soil health assessments. Tests are done in-field in 5 minutes, and results are GPS- and time-stamped.
About
PES Technologies has developed a revolutionary product that provides key indicators used for soil health assessments, in-field in 5 minutes. Soil life, like all life, produces a variety of gases as metabolic by-products – our unique ScentsCheck technology “smells” soil and, through this, provides industry leading metrics relating to both biological and non-biological soil health indicators. This addresses the currently unmet industry need for affordable, good-quality information about the biological part of soil – and with the low price-point and scalability of our solution, our easy-to-use product will unlock the currently difficult transition for agriculture to regenerative and environmentally sustainable approaches to farming. In development since 2017, we have just launched our product last Autumn in the UK.
Key Benefits
For users looking to be on the cutting edge of environmentally-friendly farming practices, a key benefit is that we are offer industry-leading biological insights - microbial biomass is considered a leading indicator, and we provide the gold-standard for it, alongside other key indicators such as Respiration and Organic Matter, as well as Water Holding Capacity and Field Water Content.
For users in more conventional systems, the ability to get insights useful for agronomic decision-making in-field in 5 minutes is seen as a real game-changer - as with our tool, they have the ability to combine comprehensive data about what is going on below ground with what they see above-ground. Historically it has taken weeks for results to come back from labs, at which point conditions will have drastically changed - with our product, they can make informed decisions when time is a critical factor.
All of the results are GPS-logged and time-stamped - meaning changes in key soil health metrics can be tracked over time. Our results can be exported, so they can be integrated into monitoring, reporting and verification schemes. Crucially, our test is easy-to-do - meaning anyone can do a test.
Crucially, we know that the industry needs easier access to soil health data, in order to become more environmentally sustainable - we look to enable the mass-testing needed to really understand the impact of such practices and interventions, and we do so by selling our tests at a price equivalent to NPK testing, the most commonly used testing in the industry.
Applications
While farmers are the end-beneficiaries of our product, our users are professional service providers in agriculture - agronomists, farm managers, and others providing advice or services to farmers regarding the health of their soil.
These users will utilise the data we provide to determine the best course of action. By providing this information to them in-field in 5 minutes, they can use data that they would typically wait for from labs - but use it instantly. This will help them determine whether now is the right time to apply a product or amendment (e.g., before the weather turns), whether a regenerative or novel farming practice is truly improving their soils' health, or whether a grower is meeting criteria set by the supply chain for being environmentally sustainable.