Canadian digital soil mapping technology expands European footprint

Tavistock ON,  – Soil sensing technology developed and commercialized in Ontario is now going to be offered to more farmers across continental and Eastern Europe. SoilOptix® Inc. of Tavistock is expanding its official distributor agreement with United Kingdom-based Hutchinsons, a leading agricultural and horticultural input advice and supply company, to increase its presence in the European market.

Hutchinsons already has exclusive rights to the sale, support, and marketing of SoilOptix®’s technology in the UK under the TerraMap banner. A new partnership between Hutchinsons and Syngenta now makes the SoilOptix® system available under the Interra® Scan brand across 51 countries in Europe. The rollout of Interra® Scan SoilOptix® sensors will begin in Eastern Europe with Ukraine and Poland and gradually move into western Europe over the next several years.

“This is a huge steppingstone for SoilOptix® and our ability to make our technology available to as many growers as possible,” says SoilOptix® Co-founder and President Paul Raymer. “Our growth as a company has centred around building our service provider network and through this new agreement, we are able to take made-in-Canada technology to major crop-growing regions of the world.”

The SoilOptix® digital topsoil mapping system combines gamma radiation-based sensor data collected at 335 data points per acre with strategically located physical soil samples to give growers a precise, high-resolution picture of fields.

This includes physical properties, macro- and micro-nutrients, pH, organic matter, plant available water, and carbon. Results, available on an easy-to-use digital dashboard, help farmers identify areas of interest in a field and customize a variable rate fertilizer program specific to the characteristics of the soil and nutrients in the ground.

“Our technology provides a level of insight into soil health that goes beyond the obvious to help growers optimize the performance of their inputs, keep costs under control, and strengthen soil health,” adds Raymer. “Global interest in climate change and the need for increased sustainability in all aspects of food production will only increase, and our system is a way farmers can directly respond to those societal demands.”