The UK Agri-Tech Centre has highlighted a series of projects focused on improving water quality, monitoring, and nutrient management across agricultural systems, with potential implications for input efficiency and environmental compliance in crop production.

The organisation has worked with agri-tech businesses to trial technologies aimed at addressing challenges related to water management and quality on farms. According to the Centre, “the production and protection of safe water is directly linked to the healthiness of our soil, and therefore our energy and food consumption.”

Among the initiatives is the STREAMS (Space Tech for River Environments & Agricultural Monitoring Sensors) project, which is focused on improving water-quality monitoring in rural environments. The project addresses limitations associated with traditional monitoring methods, including high costs and lack of connectivity, which often result in reliance on manual sampling.

Led by Lacuna Space in collaboration with Aberystwyth University and the UK Agri-Tech Centre, STREAMS combines a low-cost multiparameter sensor with satellite-enabled IoT connectivity. The system is designed to measure indicators such as nitrates, phosphates, dissolved oxygen and pH levels, transmitting data without the need for conventional network infrastructure. The project also includes a bilingual dashboard to provide real-time insights for farmers, land managers and environmental stakeholders.

A second initiative, the NURSE (Nutrient Utilisation and Recovery through Supercritical Extraction) project, is focused on processing livestock waste to recover nutrients and produce fertiliser. The project is led by Kairos Carbon Limited in collaboration with Cranfield University, the Royal Agricultural University and the UK Agri-Tech Centre, as part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.

The project aims to develop hydrothermal processing technology to convert livestock waste into a non-leaching fertiliser while separating carbon for permanent sequestration. The UK Agri-Tech Centre notes that less than 50% of applied nutrients, such as phosphorus, are typically taken up by crops when livestock waste is spread on land. The proposed approach is intended to improve nutrient utilisation while reducing emissions and limiting nutrient losses to the environment.

The third project, NTPlus2, builds on earlier work led by Agua DB to recover nutrients from wastewater. The system uses ion exchange technology to produce high-nitrate irrigation water and convert potash into sulphate of potash, while also generating low-nitrate drinking water. The follow-up NTPlus2 project aims to extend nutrient recovery to include phosphates and to integrate additional treatment processes for removing persistent organic compounds.

According to the UK Agri-Tech Centre, the technology is intended to recover nitrates that would otherwise leach into aquifers, converting them into usable inputs for agriculture. The recovered nutrients are expected to be formulated into liquid fertilisers for validation in crop trials.

Rebecca Lewis, Head of Bid Development at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, said: “These projects show just some of the range of exciting innovations that are being developed to help deliver more resilient and healthy water systems.

“Technology can play a key role in securing a sustainable water resource for farms, ecosystems and communities.”