GLOBAL NEIGHBOR, INC — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.13

Description

PROJECT SUMMARYTitle: On-Planter Directed Energy Seed Priming to Increase Producer ProfitabilityPD:Jackson Jon Institution: Global Neighbor Inc. (GNI)The world's population is growing increasing food demand far beyond arable land availability soproducers need a way to increase their yield using current acreage. Low-cost methods to increaseyields in the reality of changing environmental stress is critical to agriculture production and neweconomical and environmentally friendly seed priming techniques can provide this increase despitechanging climate and environmental conditions.It is widely understood that getting crops started earlier helps them compete with weeds. Highergermination rates result in more uniform stands which has been shown to have a 9-22% increase incrop yields increasing producer profitability without increasing land requirements. GNI's DirectedEnergy Seed Priming (DESP) technology provides a way to increase germination rates and hastenemergence of seeds seamlessly integrating with existing practices without adding labor or havingany environmental impact.This proposal is centered around determining the technical viability of an aftermarket upgrade kitfor the integration of DESP into a commercially available planter. GNI will also further quantify themarket potential of a DESP-enhanced planter and the impacts such a product will have on farmerproductivity and profitability. By the end of this project GNI with the support of collaborator CNHIndustrial (CNH) will have verified the feasibility of a DESP aftermarket upgrade kit for acommercially available CNH planter at the specified power levels and targeted price andprofitability points. The specific objectives to achieve this are:1. Design DESP prototype2. Validate DESP prototype with field trial3. Refine DESP row-unit design into full-planter commercial implementation and4. Disseminate findingsPhase I will provide a detailed design of a commercially viable product ready to be used forsoybeans. Seed priming on row crops with DE holds the promise of sustainably increasing outputfrom each acre by 5-10% providing a broad societal benefit of increased food security and theadoption of more sustainable farming practices. With the U.S. soybean market being on the order of$50B if soybean output could be increased by 5% the proposed effort holds the promise ofboosting U.S. agricultural output by over $2B/year for domestic soybean producers representing atremendous return on investment for the project.With the results of Phase I GNI its collaborators and the broader ag research community willunderstand the effectiveness of DE seed priming and its viability as a scalable solution. Theoutcome will stimulate follow-up research into other crops where priming would be of significance.Phase II will expand research across full growing seasons to better understand the potential and testacross other commodities.