What can a social enterprise that helps India’s smallholder dairy farmers earn more and lower their carbon emissions learn from a team of Swiss Re volunteers?
Whether organic or conventional, crops need nitrogen-based fertilisers to grow. Enzymes produced by soil organisms like bacteria and fungi help break down large nitrogen-containing molecules into nutrients that plants can absorb. Optimal fertiliser use calls for real-time information on this enzymatic activity.
Current methods of enzymatic measurement, however, are complex, unstandardizedand dependent on lab analysis. This leaves farmers to guess how much fertiliser to apply, often resulting in overuse. Excess ends up in surface water, groundwater or the atmosphere – producing toxic water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Early-stage start-up Digit Soil has developed an innovative device that measures enzymatic activity accurately under real-world conditions. Lightweight and simple to use, the device allows farmers to dose and time fertiliser according to soil analyses performed on farm, improving their yields and cost efficiency and reducing environmental risk.
Founded by graduates of Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology, Digit Soil participated in the 2022 edition of the Swiss Re Foundation’s social entrepreunership programme Shine. Now offered in eight geographies worldwide, Shine brings entrepreneurs with solutions that address urgent climate and health challenges together with Swiss Re experts who help them turn their solutions into sustainable businesses.
A fertile collaboration for sustainable growth
In this video, Digit Soil co-founder Hélène Iven introduces the solution and how the collaboration with Swiss Re volunteers benefited her company, agronomist Frank Liebisch explains the challenges its measurement device addresses and Swiss Re employees Matthias Gasser, Janic Schilling and Endrit Dodaj reflect on the two-way learning they experienced as advisers to Digit Soil.
