Ritesh Kumar Singh principal research fellow

Research Ritesh Kumar Singh

Research team

Sustainable and Energy Neutral Soil Sensing (SENSS). 01/09/2025 - 31/08/2026

Abstract

Agriculture 5.0 is expected to bring a paradigm shift in agricultural practices by leveraging advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Big Data. By providing farmers with insights into various aspects of farming, such as soil health, water usage, and crop conditions, Agriculture 5.0 aims to enhance both productivity and sustainability. Long-standing issues in agriculture, such as over-fertilisation, soil degradation, and their subsequent climate impacts, are anticipated to be addressed through these next-generation technologies. However, bridging real-world farming conditions with digital systems remains a significant market gap. There is a lack of soil sensors capable of delivering real-time soil data in a seamless and user-friendly manner. Most state-of-the-art solutions are expensive, making them inaccessible to many farmers. Additionally, these solutions often provide data at low temporal and spatial resolution, limiting their usefulness for long-term monitoring and prediction. While some basic sensors are available, they are typically battery-powered, resulting in frequent maintenance requirements that are impractical for everyday farming operations. To address this gap, the Sustainable and Energy Neutral Soil Sensing (SENSS) proof-of-concept project proposes the development of a novel soil sensing device tailored for agricultural use. This device will be cost-effective, maintenance-free, and designed with a deploy-and-forget architecture to minimise the burden on farmers. It will feature integrated energy harvesting, low-power wireless connectivity, and onboard data processing, ensuring long-term, autonomous operation. By combining expertise from the Global Change Ecology Center of Excellence (GCEC) in environmental sciences and IDLab in low-power electronics and communications, SENSS aims to deliver a transformative solution for sustainable farming.

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  • Research Project

Sustainable and Energy Neutral Soil Sensing. 01/09/2024 - 31/08/2025

Abstract

Greenhouse gas emission is causing the Earth's climate to deteriorate at an alarming rate. Greenhouse gas traps the heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming, extreme weather conditions and environmental changes such as rising sea levels. Agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emission, with a contribution of around one-third of total emissions. Considering this, many recent sustainability regulations such as the Flemish Nitrogen Decree and EU Green Deal try to tackle the emission from agriculture. A major portion of agricultural emissions arise from the unscientific use of fertilizers which release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As a result, farmers are urged to follow sustainable agriculture practices and reduce emission. However, implementing sustainable farming requires allowing farmers to determine the optimum measurement of both soil nutrient content and emission in real time. But there is a lack of cost-effective devices that can measure both soil nitrogen content and emission in real time and can assist farmers in deciding on optimum fertilizer application. Such a device should be of low cost and with limited maintenance requirements, putting no extra financial pressure on farmers. Moreover, they should be deploy-and-forget architecture so that no maintenance and management is required from the farmers. This POC proposal Sustainable and Energy Neutral Soil Sensing (SENSS) aims to fill this gap by innovating novel soil sensing devices that work seamlessly in agricultural environments. The device will incorporate novel energy harvesting and energy-aware techniques along with low-power wireless connectivity and onboard intelligence to achieve long-term operation and in-device data processing and inference. The project will further leverage the ecology and environmental knowledge of the Global Change Ecology Center of Excellence and the low-power electronic and communication knowledge of IDLab.

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Project type(s)

  • Research Project