“UTS-RFCT Lab technologies have progressed beyond research into active commercialisation planning, with NTT developing business strategies and market pathways to support future deployment in Australia, Japan, and other international markets,”
David McKeering, NTT DATA, Australia and New Zealand
⬇️️ Download project explainer (.pdf)
Farmers need timely, accurate information on soil moisture, nutrients, soil health, and soil organic carbon. Yet existing soil measurement approaches are often expensive, labour-intensive, fragmented, and difficult to scale.
Climate-smart agriculture and carbon markets require trusted soil intelligence, but today's technologies force farmers to choose between accuracy, scalability, and affordability. No existing solution delivers all three simultaneously.
High monitoring costs, limited decision-making capability, low confidence in carbon measurement and carbon credits, and reduced productivity continue to limit the adoption of precision agriculture and sustainable land management practices.
The vision of this project is to make soil intelligence trusted, affordable, and scalable, supporting sustainable agriculture, food security, and the transition to net zero.
To achieve this, the team have developed a multidisciplinary, AI-enabled soil intelligence platform that integrates Radio Frequency (RF) sensing technologies, RF energy harvesting, wireless communications, and embedded AI into a unified system. The platform delivers real-time, multi-parameter, multi-modal, and multi-depth soil intelligence while reducing the cost and complexity of soil monitoring.
Developed through a close Australia–Japan collaboration, the platform responds to the growing need for trusted soil intelligence to support food security, climate resilience, sustainable land management, and carbon Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV).
By reducing the cost of soil measurements, the technology enables improved irrigation and fertiliser management, supports better soil health and nutrient management, strengthens carbon MRV, and advances climate-smart agriculture. It also contributes to Australia's sovereign capability in next-generation digital agriculture, delivering lasting environmental, economic, and societal impact.
September 2026 - Engineers Australia Excellence Awards: Sydney Project Of The Year Nominee (p81)
June 2026 - Australian Information Industry Association Awards: Merit Recipient, Technology Platform
November 2023 - Project Launch: Australia the testbed for new green IoT technologies
Ongoing - for a list of the research publications produced through this project, please click here.
