Seeking Organic weed control technologies

The client is actively searching for partners that have technology for controlling / managing weeds in large scale farms. Some of the most problematic weeds include both grasses from the Poaceae family (e.g. foxtail grass, barnyard grass, quack grass, witchgrass) and broadleaf (e.g. pigweed, lambs quarters, common ground mallow, prostrate knotweed, chickweed, stinging nettle). The client 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.

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

Ideally, the potential partner would work with the client to pilot / test the potential solutions in a 5 acre research plot initially and scale up to commercial areas in phases if successful.

Our client is seeking novel offerings / improvements in this space and this could include everything from new weed control practices to new equipment to fundamentally new science. All opportunities from “blue sky” work to proven products awaiting commercialisation are in scope. This therefore represents an excellent business opportunity for groups looking for co-development, testing potential solutions, or to commercialise relevant technologies via collaboration, which may take the form of long-term partnerships, licensing or investment.