The global push toward sustainable agriculture has taken a leap forward with the launch of new digital tools designed to support regenerative farming practices. Regenerative agriculture emphasizes restoring soil health, enhancing biodiversity, and creating long-term environmental and economic sustainability. At the heart of these efforts are innovative technologies that allow farmers to make more informed, data-driven decisions on soil management.
A major advancement in this area is the introduction of Decision Support Tools (DSTs), developed as part of an international initiative promoting soil restoration strategies across Europe, China, and New Zealand. These online tools provide farmers with a user-friendly way to monitor and assess soil health directly from the field.
The DSTs are tailored to six key aspects of soil health: erosion, fertilisation, compaction, carbon, biology, and structure. By inputting field data and uploading georeferenced photographs, users can evaluate changes over time, identify emerging issues, and implement more targeted soil management interventions. These capabilities enhance the precision and efficiency of soil restoration practices, enabling farmers to track and improve outcomes based on real-world conditions.
Supporting these DSTs is the Socio-Economic Toolkit to Support Soil Restoration (SEST), which brings an economic dimension to decision-making. This tool offers detailed financial analyses of various soil management approaches, allowing farmers to weigh the costs and benefits of different strategies. SEST is designed to guide users toward more cost-effective and sustainable choices, particularly in fertiliser use and long-term soil regeneration plans.
All DSTs are accessible through a mobile-friendly application that can be downloaded to smartphones and tablets or used via a web browser. This makes it easy for farmers and agricultural advisors to use the tools on-site, improving the immediacy and relevance of their data collection. The SEST tool, packaged separately as ‘TUdiSEST’, is available as a computer-based application tailored for in-depth socio-economic evaluations.
To ensure users can fully benefit from these innovations, the project team has developed a suite of instructional videos available online. These guides walk users through each tool’s functionality and are currently available in English, with translations into other languages underway to broaden accessibility.
These digital innovations reflect a growing trend in agriculture: the use of technology not only to boost productivity but also to safeguard the environment. By equipping farmers with better tools to understand and restore their soil, the initiative paves the way for a more resilient, informed, and sustainable agricultural future.
