Produce World has partnered with Cranfield University to undertake a major sustainability project on soil health.

The three-year collaboration was arranged through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP), a government funded programme designed to accelerate business innovation by linking business with higher and further education institutes.

The KTP project will enable Produce World to develop a soil information and risk management system to help the company address issues of food security, resource protection and sustainability across its supply chain.

The company has identified sustainable soil management as a key component of its future strategy.

The firm’s agricultural director Andrew Burgess said a greater understanding of soil management will lead to significant environmental and business benefits throughout the supply chain.

He said: “Soil is such a valuable living resource, vital to the health of crops and people. We are fully supporting this innovative research to ensure that we steward our soils for future generations.:

The work will be undertaken by KTP associate Guy Thallon who is a graduate in soil management from Cranfield University.

He said: “We need to collate a wide range of datasets to produce a comprehensive and effective decision support tool. I’m personally very excited to be working on such an important soil research project which will provide a very significant data source for both Produce World and Cranfield University.”