British Sugar, the sole processor of the UK’s homegrown sugar beet crop, has announced a groundbreaking project with leading York-based agri-tech company AgriSound.
The collaboration sees the installation of 27 acoustic sensors at a large farming estate in North Norfolk. The sensors will remain in place for a two-year period, recording real-time biodiversity data, and providing critical insights into the health of vital pollinator populations.
At the core of the project is AgriSound’s Polly technology which uses acoustic sensors to detect and analyse bee and other insect activity in real-time. This scalable and automated approach will provide unprecedented real-time data on pollinator health to the estate owner Ali Cargill, British Sugar and other stakeholders involved in the collaborative project.
The information gathered will enable accurate and value-added insight into pollinator activity where sugar beet is part of the crop rotation. The project will also demonstrate whether wildflower borders, hedgerows and nearby water sources have any impact on pollinators over a longer period of time and unveil opportunities for sustainable land and pest management activities across the beet growing area which spans across the East of England, the East Midlands and Yorkshire.
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Charlie Curtis, agricultural sustainability manager at British Sugar said: “This project presents a significant leap forward in our long-term ambition to enhance biodiversity across our agricultural operations. We have been looking to adapt our practices to become more sustainable and supportive of biodiversity in the UK and partnering with AgriSound seemed like a natural choice for us.
“By better understanding pollinator activity, we can make more informed decisions about land use, pesticide management, and where to create nature-friendly habitats. This will help us to maintain our eco-friendly practices well into the future.”
Casey Woodward, founder and CEO of AgriSound added: “British Sugar’s leadership in piloting real-time pollinator monitoring will provide invaluable information to support data-driven decision making by farmers in how to manage their land to protect pollinators and biodiversity.
“We are proud to partner with British Sugar and provide the data needed to drive measurable biodiversity improvements. It is vital that more British businesses and producers look to monitor the pollinator activity at their sites, to enhance the protection of our ecosystems across the UK, and we are thrilled that British Sugar have taken this step.”
Ali Cargill, grower and committee member of the Rural Economy Research Group concluded: “What we’re really trying to achieve is to find out what sort of speciation of bees we have on farm, as well as how they are interacting with the crops and the wildflower margins that we have. Enabling us to see a baseline which we can then improve and build upon year on year.”
The two-year pilot project will run until 2027.
