Ancient printing method informs development of low-cost soil sensor

To this end, Dr Andrew Ward from Strathclyde University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is leading an EPSRC-funded project that will use discarded everyday items to build sensors for use on Kenyan smallholdings and beyond.

According to the US Agency for International development, the agriculture sector accounts for around 33 per cent of Kenya's GDP and employs over 40 per cent of the total population and 70 per cent of the rural population.

The sector is dominated by smallholder production on farms of between 0.2 and 3ha, which are said to account for account for 78 per cent of total agricultural production.

Despite its importance to the Kenyan economy, a large proportion of the population is food insecure, a situation exacerbated by land parcels shrinking because of population growth; farmers being pushed into dryer, lower quality areas of land that are vulnerable to drought; and conflicts resulting from competition for land.