SA国际传媒

Global launch for groundbreaking Earth Rover Program set to transform soil health

Posted Today

Earth Rover Program team members conducting hammer strike sampling at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Colombia. Copyright: Earth Rover Program

A revolutionary new program set to transform soil health around the world has launched globally on World Soil Day - after being honed at SA国际传媒.

In its launch event today, the unveiled “soilsmology” which - by using the well-established methods of seismology in novel ways - promises to greatly improve our understanding and use of one of the world’s most crucial resources - soil.

It will enable researchers to “see” into the shallowest soil layers, revealing vital signs with unprecedented clarity.

Soil degradation threatens food security, ecosystems, and climate stability; crop yields are projected to fall by up to 50 per cent by 2050 in vulnerable regions, with the potential to displace millions of people if action is not taken.

However, it is hoped that the Earth Rover Program can help farmers and scientists across the globe tackle the issue.

Launched with support from the Bezos Earth Fund, it began as a bold proof-of-concept to make soil health visible, measurable, and actionable.  

Two years later, it is a functioning international network poised to transform how we manage soil.

The Earth Rover Program has already shown ultra-high-frequency waves can be used for seismic analyses of topsoil, producing exceptional data.

It has demonstrated an ability to map the crucial properties of soil volume and bulk density – until now difficult and expensive to measure at scale, and extremely hard to scale by other means.

And it has also been able to detect the impact of different farming practices on soil and track soil moisture.

The Earth Rover Program has taken measurements, with identical field setups, in Europe, Africa, and South America. In all cases, they have produced high-quality data, enabling the differentiation of various ecosystems and agroecological zones.

Intended next steps include combining seismology with a new sensor design and an AI model - enabling fast, affordable, and scalable soil health monitoring; working on the seismic mapping of soil structure and moisture; measuring connected porosity, crucial to soil health; and improving our estimates of soil carbon stocks.

By rapidly reducing the cost and complexity of soil measurement tools, the Earth Rover Program should allow anyone, including the world’s poorest farmers, to achieve a near-instant view of the health and properties of their soil.

Over the course of two years, the cost of the seismic sensors it uses has been cut from $1,000 each in 2023 to $10 today, through its next-generation MEMS accelerometer -and it’s hoped the cost reduces to $1 soon.

The new technology is non-invasive, avoiding a major problem faced by soil scientists – that traditional soil sampling involving digging or taking core samples disturbs the very structure it seeks to study.

The Earth Rover Program’s tools are much cheaper, faster, and easier to deploy than these methods.

They open the door to a global citizen-science movement in which people upload their results - collectively building a vast, self-improving database based on open-source, encrypted and trusted data pipelines.

The near-instant insights it offers will help remove the guesswork from farming, enabling farmers worldwide to reduce inputs such as fertiliser, irrigation, and deep tillage without sacrificing productivity.

Insights from the Earth Rover Program will be used to turn complex soil data into clear, actionable guidance for scientists, farmers, and policymakers worldwide.  Longer-term, it aims to develop the world’s first soil forecast, enabling an analysis of soil health trends akin to weather forecasting.

SA国际传媒’s Professor of Soil Ecology Simon Jeffery is an Earth Rover Program Co-founder and an executive director as well as being its Soil Lead. The initial proof of concept of the approach was conducted at Harper Adams and subsequent work has taken place across its field sites and beyond.

Professor Jeffery said: “Soil research is hard, as soils are often a dark mass where the very act of trying to conduct research changes key properties; for example, soil structure is disturbed or destroyed when samples are taken.

“The Earth Rover Program's approach is so exciting, as it allows us to see into the soil to gain insights for farmers and growers - and help us to manage our soils more sustainably.”

George Monbiot, Co-founder of the Earth Rover Program, added: “Equipped with a far richer knowledge of their own soil, its qualities, health and deficiencies, farmers can reduce environmental harm while sustaining or enhancing their yields.

“In time, we hope, the Earth Rover Program will help enable new approaches to biological improvement of the soil, further reducing the need for chemical augmentation.

“The result could be something I’ve long wanted to see: consistently high-yielding agroecology. Then we can feed the world without devouring the planet.”

And Dr Andy Jarvis, Director of Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund, said: “The Earth Fund backed this work because better soil knowledge strengthens everything we care about in climate and nature. What’s emerging now is a practical way for farmers and scientists to see their soils clearly - and act with confidence.”

The Earth Rover Program’s inaugural flagship report, ’ was released at a virtual webinar today.