Initially, these apps were developed from a compliance point of view to ensure environmental requirements were being met. However, they also provide opportunities to explore new income streams. 

If you are looking to diversify your land, these tools can help create hypothetical land use scenarios and eliminate the cost of physical surveys. 

With many apps to choose from, finding the right one to support your business can be difficult. Here’s a look at  some of our favourite apps on the digital market and how they may be helpful to farmers. Read more about this and other rural news in our latest edition of Aspects of Land.

Farm Carbon Toolkit

One of the oldest carbon apps on the market, Farm Carbon Toolkit is an effective way to help farmers measure, understand and act on their greenhouse gas emissions. Widely used across the UK it’s free to farmers and growers although consultants and other users pay a small fee.

Rethink Carbon

The key benefits of Rethink Carbon include the combination of land data, carbon credit potential, and available grants. These tools can be used to assess opportunities for land use change. This app is currently only available in Scotland, though it hopes to expand to the rest of the UK. There is a fee to join but a free trial period is offered.

Land App

This app tells you all you need to know about your land, including sales and valuation, estate management, agri-scheme applications and landscape recovery projects. There is also a layer that focuses on biodiversity net gain (BNG) uplift. Though there’s a charge to use it, this app can be useful to decide what kinds of projects are worth exploring for your land. 

Land Use for Net Zero Footprint Hub

As a project partner for the ‘to zero fifty’ greenhouse gas accounting living lab project led by Professor Julie Ingram at the University of Gloucestershire, we are working on improving farmers’ experiences of three land use apps: AgreCalc, Farm-Carbon-Toolkit and the Cool Farm Alliance. The project is one of five UK research projects forming part of the Transforming Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People (LUNZ) programme. 

Further information

Contact Jon Dearsley or Lucy Jenner