Active Food & Agriculture Plants, Animals & Ecology

Project title: Sensor-based precision fertigation of stone fruit: lowering inputs and emissions, and improving production efficiency

Funder InnovateUK (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation Norton Folgate Marketing LTD
Funding £747K
Period Feb 2025 — Jan 2028

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

British stone fruit growers are pouring expensive fertiliser into the ground that their trees never use. In 2023, the UK orchard fruit industry was worth £293.4 million, yet £99 million worth of plums and sweet cherries had to be imported because domestic production could not keep up. The core problem is that growers lack robust guidelines for when and how much nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to apply. An estimated 48 kilograms per hectare of applied nitrogen is simply not taken up by the trees, wasting money and releasing unquantified pollutants into the environment. This project aims to fix that mismatch between supply and demand. A consortium led by Norton Folgate, including commercial growers and technology companies, will deploy novel sensors that provide real-time data on soil NPK levels. Growers can then schedule fertiliser applications precisely, cutting waste and emissions while improving yields. If the approach works, it could make UK stone fruit production more profitable and sustainable, reducing reliance on imports. The technology might also be adapted for other orchard crops, quietly improving the efficiency of a supply chain most people never think about—until the fruit is missing from supermarket shelves.

View original technical description
The UK orchard fruit industry was worth £293.4M in 2023, but unsated demand for home-grown fruit meant that £99M worth of plum and sweet cherry were imported in 2023 (DefraStats). Optimum nutrition of UK orchard crops is essential to ensure high yields of phytonutritious fruit with good storage potential, but there are no robust grower guidelines. Consequently, commercial stone fruit growers are unable to schedule fertilisers to match demand with supply, and so current fertiliser practices are wasteful and expensive. An estimated 48kg/ha of applied nitrogen (N) is not taken up by the trees, and so losses of this and other applied fertilisers are high but remain unquantified. Our aim here is to reduce inputs of N, phosphorous(P), and potassium(K) to better match demand with supply in commercial stone fruit production. Our novel sensor technologies will provide real-time data of soil NPK levels to help inform growers' decisions. Norton Folgate leads our consortium of commercial stone fruit growers (A.C. Hulme, Domum Agrum, Torry Hill Farm) and technology providers (Delta-T Devices, Driemtech, EDT DirectIon, Fotenix, Soil Moisture Sense) and academic partner NIAB. Our low-input NPK approach is sustainable and will improve on-farm production efficiency and profitability.

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Original classification

Grant for R&D

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