Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SteriWeed (The first bioherbicide blocking germination of herbicide-resistant weeds)
Reporting period: 2019-03-01 to 2019-06-30
Food security for 11 billion people by 2100 is one of the biggest challenges of this century. Plant protecting products are key to ensuring global food security as crop losses of up to 80% have been found without their usage. Weed management has faced the same issues for the two past decades: notably yield losses, heavy reliance on synthetic herbicides and herbicide resistance. Resistant weeds are weeds that do not respond to standard chemical treatments and are rapidly emerging and spreading. WeedOUT have developed a novel bioherbicide with a unique mode of action that eliminates resistance. The company has already developed protocols and conducted field tests for Palmer Amaranth variant of their technology. The feasibility study was used to develop the protocols and commercialization strategy for a Blackgrass variant, the most important herbicide-resistant weed in Europe.
The technical feasibility reviewed the protocols to grow Blackgrass to enable a full study of the weed. During the feasibility, WeedOUT established protocols to cultivate Blackgrass for conducting the research needed and to manufacture sufficient amounts of pollen for the present project; a protocol to harvest and clean the pollen; a protocol for in vitro pollen germination assay and a protocol for short term storage. The technical feasibility also assessed the industrialisation of their novel pollens. The financial feasibility showed a healthy P&L and cash flow. Their first product Amaranthus Palmeri will hit the market in 2022 followed by Waterhemp in 2023 and blackgrass in 2024. WeedOUT will continue to make more variants of their technology for weeds that have grown resistant to currently available herbicides.
Weeds have evolved resistance to 23 of the 26 known herbicide sites of action and to 167 different herbicides. Herbicide resistant weeds have been reported in 93 crops in 70 countries. The emergence of resistant individuals among weed populations is an increasingly important issue worldwide and weed management strategies must change to face this issue. Future weed management must consider new tools. WeedOUT’s novel mode of action and natural product can form part of an integrated weed management program to provide a solution to the resistance and synthetic herbicide crisis in the agriculture industry.