AgriFood

Keratins are naturally occurring proteins found in hair, feathers, wool and other external protective tissues of animals. They are highly abundant, naturally produced and generally underutilized. At the same time, keratins offer versatile chemical properties that allow interactions with themselves or with other materials to improve behaviour. The technology provider has developed sustainable, biodegradable plastic materials by upcycling keratins derived from hair and feathers. In the preliminary studies, the technology provider has found ways to produce films that have the potential to be used as packaging materials. These films do not disintegrate readily in water, yet they fully degrade in soil within a week. They can be made in combination with other waste-derived biopolymers to improve strength to meet the needs of specific use cases. This technology is available for R&D collaboration, IP licensing, or IP acquisition, with industrial partners who are looking for a green packaging solution and to explore specific-use-case products. The technology provider is also interested to collaborate with the OEM partners having the keratin extraction facility from feathers and hair for the deployment of this technology.

Wine production has been a regional business near vineyard. Nevertheless, it is highly dependent on the geographical and climate of an area, for places where climate is not suitable for the growth of wine grapes, production of grape wine is costly or unavailable. On the other hand, tropical countries with ample production of a variety of fruits have to deal with wastage and economical loss as unsold fruits rotten. Dragon fruit (also known as pitaya or pitahaya) is a widely cultivated in many Southeast Asian countries. It is commonly consumed fresh or used for juice and puree production. The processing of dragon fruit into clear juice is difficult on an industrial scale due to its significant content of mucilaginous polysaccharide substances present in the flesh. The present invention seeks to address these problems by providing a method to produce a dragon fruit-derived alcoholic beverage using non-Saccharomyces yeasts fermentation. The resultant red dragon fruit beverage has lower alcohol concentration, appealing red-purple colour, pleasant fruity taste and aroma with a high concentration of natural antioxidants from the flesh pigment (betalains).

The company helps growers and farmers become more efficient and sustainable in their practices by innovatively solving insect, weed, and diseases problems. Through applying its proprietary controlled release technology, the company converts a wide range of commercially available actives such as fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides into solid, ready-to-use, self-metering dosages that release actives only as needed. When applied, these products enable an overall operational cost reduction of 15-20%, reduce actives consumption by 2-3 times, and reduce application rates by 3-4 times. The company seeks to co-develop such products with growers and farmers. Once tested and ready for commercialization, it will undertake the local product registration (if required), as well as the manufacture and supply of the products directly to the growers and farmers at a pre-agreed price.

Post-harvest spoilage is a significant problem along the supply chain which results in great profit losses. Fungal infestation and mould growth are some of the common reasons for food waste and nutrition loss due to post-harvest degradation. Common post-harvest treatment includes unsustainable and excessive use of chemicals which can lead to contamination of the environment and our food. Microbes associated with the plants and soil have co-evolved to confer beneficial traits to their plant counterparts. This technology relates to a highly effective and fully natural solution that exploits the plant microbiome for bio-based plant protection to increase the storability of fruits and vegetables. For example, the microbiome of microalgae can also be with beneficial microorganisms to increase the yield and reliability of algae growth in bioreactors. Moreover, microbiome tracking can be utilized to identify entry points of microbial contaminations. This technology provider is seeking research collaboration with farmers to implement this solution for both soil-based and hydroponics agriculture.   

The majority of the local indoor farmers grow crops that are harvested for their leaves. One way to increase the growth rate of such leafy greens is to provide a longer period of light. However, some of the crops grown, e.g., spinach, are long-day plants that flower when the light periods are longer than their critical day-length. While important to a plant’s life cycle, this vegetative to reproductive phase change is undesirable for farmers, not only because it shortens the harvest period hence reducing the yield, but also because it changes the taste profile. To tackle this problem, a light recipe that was able to suppress flowering was formulated. Plants grown under this light recipe showed a faster growth rate than those grown under flowering-suppressing short-day photoperiod. Moreover, they do not flower even when the light period has surpassed the critical day-length. Positive results were obtained when this light recipe was tested on spinach and arugula. This technology would work for other long-day crops, and it will be beneficial to indoor farmers who are interested to try it.

This Internet of Things (IoT) software architecture addresses a decentralized framework to provide the ability to exchange data between IoT devices autonomously without any centralized server. In recent years, the development of IoT applications has become increasingly complex. Thus, this technology addresses the problem by providing the ability to simplify the streaming of data to the IoT platforms over the web. The IoT platform is designed to assist modern-day farmers in monitoring the entire farm seamlessly. It can be customized to suit each farm depending on the type of sensors, machine vision camera, cloud storage, etc. Equipped with detailed data tracking and analytics to provide the most accurate growth process from start to finish. This design can be customized for other applications. The technology owner is looking for partners and collaborators to further co-develop this technology in urban farming. 

In Singapore, at least 30 tonnes of okara are generated daily and discarded as food waste or recycled as an animal feed.  Despite its richness in nutrients, the reuse of okara as human food is limited due to high amount of indigestible fibre and low palatability.  The team has developed a cost-effective enzymatic and fermentaion techniques to transform okara as a functional ingredient for applying into food innovations.