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.

Living Plant Installations is an integrally unique way of interacting with the vegetal environment. By converting plants into biological switches, we can activate lights, sounds, music, videos, and a myriad of other devices by touching plant leaves. Applications in smart cities, architecture, domotics, experiential marketing, events, and city spaces.   Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vwdb3Yj26arHi5omVH3CAxLHNL9qowCi/view?usp=sharing.

Bread is among the top 3 wasted food globally, with hundreds of tons being discarded daily. Unsold breads are returned to bakeries from retail outlets at the end of the day despite being fit for consumption, as customers prefer to purchase freshly baked over day old produce. These breads are redistributed to charitable organisations, sold as animal feed or disposed, this providing minimal or no value to bakeries. This technology is a method to convert market surplus bread into a probiotic beverage with zero waste generated. It presents a sustainable alternative for creating a circular economy by transforming surplus bread that will otherwise be discarded into a high-value product for bakeries or drinks manufacturers. Upcycling surplus bread also reduces its impact on the environment, as bread is a perishable product that can cause pollution if not disposed properly.  

Stomata are small pores present on the surface of leaves, which are opened or closed under the control of a pair of guard cells for gas exchange with the atmosphere. Through these pores, plants uptake the carbon dioxide necessary for photosynthesis and release water by transpiration, which enhances uptake of nutrients from the roots. Therefore, regulation of stomatal openings is essential for plant growth as well as survival in response to various environmental conditions. Through random screening of a chemical library of over 20,000 compounds, the technology provider has succeeded in finding new compounds that can control stomatal opening in plants. Analysis of stomatal closing compounds (SCLs) revealed that they inhibit the signaling components between the blue light receptor phototropin and the plasma membrane proton ATPase (PM H+ -ATPase), thus inhibiting light-induced activation of PM H+ -ATPase and leading to suppression of stomatal opening. Some of the compounds have shown to prevent leaves from drying up and suppress wilting when sprayed onto rose and oat leaves. The beauty of a chemistry-based approach instead of classical genetic techniques is that SCLs can be applied very easily to all plants. It also circumvents GMOs regulation.

A Singapore start-up has developed a sustainable source of plant protein fermentating a strain of algae using food waste in fermentation tanks. With the demand to feed 10 billion people by 2050, it is necessary for alternative protein options as current sources of protein may not meet the demands of the growing population With its rapid fermentation process, this plant protein offers attractive alternatives to animal protein. These benefits include higher food security and safety, mitigated supply chain risks, more economic to produce and a small urban-based manufacturing footprint. For consumers, the sustainable plant protein contains the full suite of nutrients recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO). It also contains higher amount of total Essential Amino Acids (EAA) than real seafood. The unique plant protein has the potential to be realised as a high quality protein flour or concentrate, health supplement, alternative protein food such as plant-based seafood and as a quality fish feed. These applications will interest potential partners such as plant-based food makers, supplement companies, conventional food manufacturers and animal farms.

This Vegetarian Egg-Replacement Technology (VERT) is a break-through system for egg-alternative cooking that is good for nutritious AND “tastes just like the real thing”! Why VERT? The egg industry is fraught with problems in product safety, instability, animal welfare issues, high costs and major waste streams. More than 30% of the world’s population is vegan or vegetarian but there are no quality egg replacers available, despite a growing demand. We developed the VERT technology to provide consumers, food service and industry with natural great tasting preparations having most of the properties of natural eggs in a convenient omelette dry mix, chilled or frozen VERT productsare totally cholesterol-free, egg-free and is lower in fat than natural eggs and the contained fat is mostly polyunsaturated plus excellent protein value and essential amino acid profile. Innovation and Convenience VERT shelf-stable powder mixes are instantly dispersible in water and then ready for use in the normal way.  Other formats include ready-to-cook chilled liquid products as well as chilled, frozen or retorted ready meals. These products are prepared from natural, readily available raw materials and contain no artificial preservatives or colours. The nutritional quality of VERT Omelet is very high.  The contained protein is of a quality substantially equivalent to normal egg protein with excellent essential amino acid profile.  VERTproducts also contain natural vitamin E, lecithin and other useful vitamins, minerals and nutrients to match real eggs. The company is seeking to partner with manufacturers to license and commercialise the product.

Every day, the use of sensors in agriculture becomes more widespread. Sensors are used to measure climate conditions and soil parameters (such as humidity and pH), to predict crop yields and to identify potential dangers. Chemical batteries are the most common solution for the storage of energy in smart agriculture systems. They exhibit short lifetimes and must be replaced at least every 12 months under normal conditions. There is no reliable alternative to chemical storage in the market today. Solar panels have often been put forward as the sustainable power source of choice for remote sensing, however, they require constant maintenance resulting in high operating costs, and their connection to the sensors by cable is simply too expensive. Furthermore, all alternative solutions are either too expensive (wiring systems) or get easily deteriorated over time (piezoelectric) due to the harsh conditions, including dust, floods, and oxidation of internal components. This renders such solutions unreliable as power sources for periods of more than 2-3 months, making them unsuitable for remote monitoring in the majority of agricultural settings.  Our product is a ground-breaking sensing solution that completely eradicates the problem with powering agricultural sensors. 

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, our technology addresses this 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 the 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.

There is a growing demand for plant-based alternatives to animal-based foods due to growing concerns about health and the environmental consequences of animal agriculture. However, plant-based alternatives often may not completely recreate the taste and texture profile of their meat-based counterparts.  A foodtech startup has developed plant-based meat that is designed and created to look like, taste like, and cook like conventional meat. Unlike vegetarian mock meat products, this plant-based pork substitute satisfies like meat in terms of texture, flavour and aroma.