For four years, the North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture has been conducting trials on electric siccation in potatoes.
Since 2020, the hybrid electric process Nucrop has been tested.
Dr. Marianne Benker, Chamber of Agriculture NRW, reports on best results
German agtech start-up crop.zone, Australian crop protection specialist Nufarm and Dutch agricultural machinery dealer Kamps de Wild are pleased to announce an exclusive collaboration in the field of innovative, hybrid-electric potato siccation. Kamps de Wild BV will serve as the exclusive sales and support partner for NUCROP in the Netherlands.
The hybrid electric crop control technology, developed by German start-up crop.zone and made available to growers across Europe in collaboration with Australian crop protection specialist Nufarm, uses a conductive liquid (volt.fuel) and electrical energy (volt.apply) to dehydrate and dry crops.
Starting this year, Kamps de Wild will be the exclusive sales and support provider for the volt.apply system in the Netherlands, while Nufarm will be responsible for selling volt.fuel through its Dutch crop protection distributors After a very successful Early Adopter Program in 2021, the NUCROP solution will be launched in the Netherlands in 2022, with a focus on potato iccation and weed control being the next step.
DIRK VANDENHIRTZ, CEO of crop.zone : “We are proud to have found a strategic partner with over 100 years of experience in the agricultural machinery segment as well as close relationships with farmers, and look forward to working with the team at Kamps de Wild.”
Dick Melessen Managing Director @ Kamps de Wild B.V.
“As a distributor of agricultural machinery, we are seeing the market for weed control shifting towards new methods that use chemical pesticides differently. With this revolutionary system, we offer our customers a sustainable future. We are very excited to launch and sell this new, environmentally friendly technology together with Nufarm and crop.zone.”
Hildo Brilleman Regional General Manager EuMEA @ Nufarm
“Kamps de Wild B.V. with its experience around sales and service of agricultural machinery is the perfect partner for NUCROP. Together with them and our crop protection partners, we will introduce the innovative hybrid electric solution to one of the largest potato markets in Europe, giving growers a new, highly effective system for residue-free siccation.”
The full press release can be downloaded as a PDF from this link. (German only)
Today crop.zone received a grant of 800.000 EUR from Rentenbank. The grant was handed over today via team meeting by Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir.
The grant will be used to accelerate development in Europe and help farmers wean off herbicides such as diquat and glyphosate.
The crop.zone solution is based on a unique Hybrid Herbicide concept that combines a conductive liquid called volt.fuel with electrophysical plant control. This technology is an alternative and complementary solution to chemical plant control. The use of volt.fuel allows for optimized and safe electrical energy management, consuming much less power than other electrical plant control methods and increasing agronomic efficiency.
wordpresspower-radach, published on 02/10/2023
Deere & Company has added crop.zone to its 2022 Startup Collaborator program.
John Deere launched the program in 2019 to enhance and deepen interactions with startup companies whose technology could add value to customers.
The Startup Collaborator is a program that provides John Deere and startup companies the opportunity to test innovative technologies with customers and dealers. The startup companies also receive support and mentorship from a global leader in agricultural and construction equipment technology.
“The expansion of this year’s Collaborator program provides John Deere with the opportunity to collaborate with this globally diversified group across a broad spectrum of technology areas while adding value for our customers across multiple production systems,” said Michele Kaiser, business development manager at John Deere.
More information:
https://www.deere.com/en/news/all-news/2022-startup-collaborator-program/
The effective herbicide Diquat is no longer approved. Alternatives for haulm control in potatoes are sought. This is where the application of electric current of the crop.zone method comes into play. This method has now been tested under practical conditions by AGROLINE, HAFL (Bern University of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences) and Strickhof – Competence Center in Agriculture, Food and Home Economics.
The “producer-magazine” reports on crop.zone’s technology on October 2021:
An application of conductive liquid is made ahead of the tractor, while the rear-mounted generator and electrically charged panels do the plant termination at the back end. | Nucrop photoThefirst
people to try electricity to kill unwanted vegetation were the United States-based railroads in the 1890s. Scientists working for the railroads discovered that their new technology, high-voltage electricity, killed weeds dead.
Today, 130 years later, scientists are still working to perfect and commercialize electric weed-killing technology.
Hybrid electric desiccation is one of the most promising systems, and one that has already been used on a dozen European commercial farms. This system does not use herbicides or tillage.
Hybrid electric electrocution uses a highly conductive liquid that’s sprayed on the weed just before the zapper comes along. The liquid is designed to increase the power and spread of the electric jolt. A 5,000-volt jolt ruptures the weeds’ cell walls so water cannot move within the plant. Hybrid electric desiccation is a joint project with partners Crop.Zone in Germany and Nufarm of Australia. The electrophysical weeder project is known as Nucrop.
According to an email from Crop.Zone chief executive officer Dirk Vandenhirtz, pre-treating plants with the conductive liquid called Volt.fuel will efficiently control weeds and reduce energy use compared to conventional weeding technologies or other electric weeding technologies.
Volt.fuel is not a chemical herbicide.
‘The Volt.fuel active ingredient must reach the site of action as effective as possible so the electric current penetrates the contacted leaves with the least amount of power loss. Volt.fuel bridges leaf hairs and irregularities on the leaves, softens wax layers and thus increases electrical conductivity,” he said.
Current up to 5,000 volts is generated by the tractor with a power take-off generator and purpose-built high-voltage units. Using special applicators, the current is passed through the above-ground plant, plus through the roots and soil.
This destroys the water supply to the plants, killing them. Thistle taproots are killed to a depth of six inches. Depth of destruction depends on type of applicator, soil moisture, plant species and the amount of energy applied.
Experiments have shown that electrophysical treatment has no significant impact on earthworms in the soil. Nucrop is conducting ongoing ecotoxicological trials in 2021.
In its latest issue, Maschinenring Magazin reports on crop.zone’s groundbreaking technology.
Their experts report on the test results and see great potential in the technology.
The Australian magazine Potato-Link reports in its current issue on crop.zone’s technology and the excellent test results.
Field trials in 2020 compared the efficacy of CROP. ZONE against two herbicides still registered for “haulm kill” in Europe.
The most effective treatment was two passes of CROP. ZONE in opposite directions. This killed > 65% of the stems, with the remainder yellowing (after three weeks). Two passes in the same direction increased the number of dead stems to over 80%, and left about 10% green stems, especially between mounds.
In contrast, the two herbicides left about 20% yellow and 20% green stems. This low level of efficacy was surprising. Both herbicides require sunlight to be effective, but conditions in 2020 were ideal. Still, three herbicide treatments were needed to reach the siccation goal.
As Business Insider reports, that startups in the farming sector raised $5 billion in 2020.
Insider asked VCs to pick 15 agriculture startups that are set to take off over the next 12 months.
crop.zone was named one of the most promising startups with the potential to revolutionize agriculture in the coming years.
