JTG | TECHNOLOGY IN DEMAND

JTG NEWS & INFO

BACKGROUND/DESCRIPTION:

An established manufacturer of ingredients that operates large scale organic farming facilities across the world is interested in technologies that can provide control/managing of weeds in large scale farms. The company has a large diversity of cropping systems including row, close-grown crops, annual and perennials, and diverse growth habits. In addition, many crops are slow to establish after planting, increasing the importance for early season weed control. The company already employs a variety of solutions including mowing, flaming, manual removal and competitive planting to remove or reduce the weeds, but the variety of crop and weeds can mean effective organic weed control is problematic. The most problematic weeds include both grasses from the Poaceae family and broadleaf (e.g. pigweed, lambs quarters, common ground mallow, prostrate knotweed, chickweed, stinging nettle). As maintaining weed control in such farms is a costly and time consuming operation, desirable solutions would be those that can reduce the manual labour and tillage needed for weeding, resulting in healthier soil and lower operating costs.

The technology seeker is actively searching for technology for controlling/managing weeds in large scale farms, and interested to work with technology owners to pilot/test the potential solutions, and scale up to commercial areas in phases if successful.

TECHNOLOGY SPECIFICATION:

Solutions that achieve one or more of the following would be of interest:

•  Removal of tap roots that weeds can grow back from without killing plants from the root

•  Slow the biomass regrowth of weeds

•  Reduce weed propagation upon removal (i.e. when removing, seeds or plant parts break off and spread uncontrollably)

•  Protect plants to allow the use of a broad spectrum spray to kill the surrounding weeds (i.e. how to selectively remove weeds but not the crop itself)

The types of technologies that are of interest include (but are not limited to):

•  Spot spraying systems (precision spraying on selective weed)

•  Thermal methods (e.g. electric resistance heating, electromagnetic radiation)

•  Robotic solutions

•  New herbicide formulation using organic materials as pesticide base

•  Allelopathy weed control

•  Use of other organisms to control weed proliferation

•  Regenerative agriculture practices