Objective
The demand from food retailers to provide food which is grown according to organic standards rather than through the use of
inorganic herbicides has placed enormous pressure on crop growers. The underlying cause for this change has been the
increase in demand from consumers for food which has been grown organically or with reduced agrochemical inputs.
Existing organic solutions such as mechanical hoeing, poly mulching beds and thermal treatment (heat/foam/electricity) are
mostly unable to eliminate weeds within the crop rows, with the exception of expensive hand weeding. The prevalent use of
labour intensive weed control methods has contributed to the higher production cost, and hence retail price, of organic food
compared to food grown with the use of herbicides.
Our paper seed mat consists of a physical barrier made up of an absorbent lower layer and a very thin upper layer made
from paper. Seeds are placed between these two layers in rows, broadcasted or with precision placement. The absorbent
lower layer retains moisture and controls weeds. The key benefits of our product are that it eliminates manual labour for
weed control and allows for mechanised laying during the growing cycle, increases crop yield by 10% per season, has 100%
crop coverage, provides even germination, protects crops from microbiological and foreign body soil contamination,
degrades through the growing cycle and saves time and money in production.
Our target market is vegetable and salad producers, a significant market with over 450,000 ha of relevant crops grown in
Europe plus 270,000 ha in readily accessible international markets (e.g. USA, South Africa and Australia). Our concept has
been tested and validated in target markets, with very encouraging early sales of our beta version. Based on the early
market interest and end user feedback we have forecast sales of €19.2 million and a return on investment of 154% over the
five years following commercialisation.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagricultureagronomyplant protection
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturesustainable agriculture
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturevegetable growing
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
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Programme(s)
- H2020-EU.3.2. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy Main Programme
- H2020-EU.3.2.4. - Sustainable and competitive bio-based industries and supporting the development of a European bioeconomy
- H2020-EU.3.2.1. - Sustainable agriculture and forestry
- H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
- H2020-EU.3.2.2. - Sustainable and competitive agri-food sector for a safe and healthy diet
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
RG26 SGJ TADLEY
United Kingdom
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.