Crops & Cultivation
Potatoes & Root Crops
Seed to store, with the storage risk managed rather than hoped away.
Root crops carry the highest working capital and the highest storage risk in UK arable farming. This module runs the full cycle — seed provenance, planting, blight programme, desiccation, harvest, grading and long-term store management — with the store treated as an active, monitored asset rather than a shed the crop goes into.
- 12 capabilities
- 3 linked schemes
- Offline capable
- 12
- Capabilities in this module
- 5
- Interactive tools
- 3
- Linked support schemes
- 5
- Data integrations
- 5
- Measures reported
The ground reality
What is actually happening in potatoes & roots in the UK
Potato and root crop growers face compressed agronomic options following active substance withdrawals, a blight population that has shifted in aggressiveness, and sugar beet contracts that tie cropping decisions to a single processor. Storage losses are the largest single controllable cost, and they are invisible until the store is opened.
Figures are as published at the time of writing. Farm policy and payment rates change frequently — verify against the primary source before relying on any number here.
In the field
Potatoes & roots, as it actually looks
Photography from working UK holdings alongside the interface that records it. Every frame below is a commissioned slot: the brief is stated until the photograph is taken.
Potatoes & Roots — a walkthrough
A working pass through potatoes & roots: entering the record once, and watching it appear in the evidence pack, the calendar and the scheme application without being typed again.
- 0:00 What the module is for
- 0:48 Entering the record
- 2:05 Where it appears next
- 3:20 The evidence pack
Photography slots state their own brief until the shot is commissioned, so the layout never shifts when real images arrive.
Capabilities
What Potatoes & Roots does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Seed provenance, certification grade and physiological age tracking
- Planting record with seed rate, spacing, bed system and depth
- Blight risk modelling with Hutton criteria alerting and spray interval management
Operate and monitor
- Desiccation planning under current authorisation constraints
- Harvest scheduling with soil condition and bruising risk assessment
- Grading and out-grade analysis by size, defect and specification
Comply and evidence
- Store environment monitoring — temperature, CO2, humidity and sprout suppression
- Store loss modelling with weekly shrinkage tracking against benchmark
- Sugar beet contract management including tonnage, sugar percentage and dirt tare
Analyse and improve
- Free-living nematode and PCN risk mapping by field with rotation constraints
- Store audit pack assembly for pre-pack and processing customers
- Rotational interval enforcement to protect against soil-borne disease build-up
Interactive
Tools you actually use, not screens you read
These are working interfaces inside the module — maps, calculators, planners and dashboards that respond to your own holding data.
Blight risk dial driven by live Hutton criteria for your holding location
Blight risk dial driven by live Hutton criteria for your holding location
GaugeStore shrinkage tracker projecting loss to marketing date
Store shrinkage tracker projecting loss to marketing date
ToolPCN risk map with rotation interval overlay
PCN risk map with rotation interval overlay
MapGrading waterfall from field yield to saleable tonnage
Grading waterfall from field yield to saleable tonnage
ToolSugar beet contract value calculator with sugar and tare adjustment
Sugar beet contract value calculator with sugar and tare adjustment
CalculatorEnd to end
How Potatoes & Roots runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Select seed and verify certification
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Plan rotation against soil-borne disease risk
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Plant and record
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Run the blight and nutrition programme
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Desiccate and manage skin set
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Harvest with bruising risk managed
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Grade, load stores and monitor continuously
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Market, despatch and reconcile store losses
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Who uses it
Built around four real jobs, not one generic user
Each of these people needs something different from the same record. The module is designed so none of them has to work around the others.
Potato grower, Shropshire
250 ha packing and processing
Needs store losses visible weekly, not at marketing.
Sugar beet grower
Contracted tonnage
Needs to understand contract value before harvest logistics are committed.
Storage manager
Multi-site store operation
Needs alarms and audit evidence in one place across sites.
Pre-pack buyer
Procurement
Needs provenance and store condition evidence with the load.
Schemes and funding
Support schemes this module works with
Agrivencia holds these schemes as data, so eligibility, payment rates, caps and windows update the day they change rather than at the next software release.
Farming Equipment and Technology Fund
Contribute towards the cost of specified equipment and technology that improves productivity, slurry management or animal health and welfare.
Defra / Rural Payments Agency EnglandFarming Transformation Fund
Fund larger capital projects that transform farm productivity, water management or value addition.
Defra / Rural Payments Agency EnglandSustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Pay farmers for environmental actions taken alongside food production, as the principal replacement for area-based direct payments in England.
Defra / Rural Payments AgencyRates, caps and windows change frequently and sometimes without notice. Always confirm against the current published scheme rules before applying.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Saleable yield per hectare
- 02Store loss percentage
- 03Out-grade percentage
- 04Blight incidence
- 05Cost per tonne into store
Benchmarking
How this compares with businesses like yours
A cohort is only useful if it is genuinely comparable, so it is built from farm type, soil grade, region and scale rather than from whoever happens to have signed up. Your own figure is never shown to anyone else.
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Saleable yield per hectare
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 24 Median 45 Upper quartile 85
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Store loss percentage
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 37 Median 50 Upper quartile 84
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Out-grade percentage
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 23 Median 61 Upper quartile 80
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Blight incidence
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 20 Median 51 Upper quartile 70
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Cost per tonne into store
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 27 Median 47 Upper quartile 85
How the cohort is built
- Farm type
- Matched
- Soil grade
- Matched
- Region
- Matched
- Scale band
- Matched
- Cohort size
- Minimum 12 businesses, or no comparison is shown
Obligation calendar
What potatoes & roots asks of you, and when
Windows, deadlines and recurring obligations for England. Set a different nation and the calendar reconfigures; farm across a border and it shows both, reconciled.
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February 1 entry
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3 February: Animal Health and Welfare Pathway
Rolling application.
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April 1 entry
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20 April: Adding Value Grant
Round-based.
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June 2 entries
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5 June: Farming Transformation Fund
Round-based by theme.
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15 June: Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Two windows in 2026: window one from 30 June, window two from September.
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July 2 entries
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14 July: Slurry Infrastructure Grant
Round-based.
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17 July: Water Management Grant
Round-based.
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September 1 entry
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27 September: Select seed and verify certification
A recurring step in potatoes & roots.
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October 1 entry
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5 October: Farming Equipment and Technology Fund
Round-based, usually open for a defined application period.
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November 3 entries
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7 November: Plant and record
A recurring step in potatoes & roots.
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12 November: Improving Farm Productivity Grant
Round-based.
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27 November: Environmental Land Management Capital Grants
Round-based, with rapid allocation once open.
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December 3 entries
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2 December: Run the blight and nutrition programme
A recurring step in potatoes & roots.
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7 December: Plan rotation against soil-borne disease risk
A recurring step in potatoes & roots.
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26 December: Countryside Stewardship
Rolling and round-based depending on the tier and option group.
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Questions answered
What people ask about Potatoes & Roots
Does this replace the software I already use?
Not necessarily. Agrivencia integrates with authoritative sources and mainstream packages rather than insisting on replacing them. Where an incumbent does one job well, the platform connects to it; where the job spans several systems and nobody does it, the platform does it.
Will it work where I have no signal?
Yes. Field capture in Potatoes & Roots is offline first, storing locally and synchronising when a connection returns. Only around a fifth of UK farms report reliable signal across the whole holding, so this is a design assumption rather than a feature.
What happens when the scheme rules change?
Scheme rules are held as data rather than code, so a rate change, a cap change or a window closure is a content update that takes effect the same day. The platform also alerts you to what the change does to your own position.
Who owns the data I put in?
You do. The Farm Data Charter gives you a complete export in open formats at any time, and every instance of data sharing requires an explicit, revocable consent that is visible in your account.
Does it work if I farm across a border?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons the platform exists. A business with land in more than one nation sees one reconciled view rather than two portals, with obligations and deadlines from both administrations in a single calendar.
Can my agronomist or land agent use it too?
Yes. You grant scoped, time-limited access per holding and per module, and you can revoke it in one click. Advisers never get a shared password or a blanket view.
What is the biggest limitation of this module?
Store failure. Mitigated by continuous monitoring and alarm escalation. We would rather state that plainly than let you discover it after signing.
Documents
Take it away with you
Everything here is printable and works on a kitchen table with no signal. Where a document asks for an email address, it says so on the button rather than after you press it.
Managing the Store: Where Root Crop Margin Actually Disappears
The practical handbook for potatoes & roots: what the rules require, what the evidence has to show, and the mistakes that cost people money.
potatoes & roots — evidence checklist
Every document an audit or a claim asks for, in the order it is asked for, with the validity period of each.
potatoes & roots — record template
The record structure the module uses, as a spreadsheet, so a business not yet on the platform can start keeping it correctly today.
Data model reference
Entities, fields and integration points for potatoes & roots, for advisers and software partners.
See Potatoes & Roots running on your own holding
Thirty minutes, using your parcels, your schemes and your enterprises rather than a sample farm. No obligation and no sales script — if it does not fit your business we will say so.
- Free tier available
- No card required
- Your data stays yours