Project details
Status: Completed
The challenge
Farmers often intuitively assess soil by smell.
There is strong evidence that the fingerprint of gases emitted from soil can identify the composition and activity of the microbial community which relates to soil health.
Currently there are no field based sensors to diagnose soil health using aromas. An ‘electronic nose’ offers a solution to this problem.
eNose technology co-developed with farmers
This project will build a useful and useable e-nose (called the QUOLL®) that can help growers understand what is happening in their soil.
The e-nose will be co-developed with farmers to ensure that the technology is useful, usable and provides relevant information which is easily interpreted and understood by farmers themselves.
Being able to do this will mean that farmers can make the right management decisions to improve crop performance and yield, especially in poor soils.
Next steps
In the next stage of the project, we plan to further test the abilities of the QUOLL® e-nose in the laboratory and the field and to develop the user interface with the data. Learn more about the next project.
Related projects
- Commercialising the Bilby – a below ground wireless sensor node
- Commercialising the Bandicoot - a smart penetrometer
Related resources
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Acknowledgements:
This work has been supported by the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils whose activities are funded by the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centre Program.