Project description
Biotechnology solution beats salinity
The areas of irrigated soils affected by salinity are multiplied under new climate conditions. As a result, crop production is limited and food security threatened. Salinity-resistant seeds are critical for the business of seed producers. The EU-funded SALICROP project proposes a pioneering biotechnology solution that permits crops to grow on marginal land or be irrigated with brackish water. The solution is a development of the Israeli Salicrop, a start-up specialised in seed treatments, and has already been successfully tested in tomatoes, peppers, spinach, rice, wheat and corn. The project aims to prepare a feasibility study that will help the company deepen its knowledge and understanding of the international market, enabling commercialisation of the innovative solution worldwide.
Objective
Salinity is among the major global burdens limiting food production, natural or human induced, ~20% of the global irrigated
soils are already affected by salinity. Seed producers, aware of the billion-dollar business opportunity, have tried to
overcome the salinity barrier without success.
Salicrop Ltd, a Israeli Agtech startup, develops seed treatments for saline soil and water, which enables growing crops on
marginal land and/or irrigation with brackish water. Salicrop finalized its Proof of Concept (POC) with numerous successful
trials of tomatoes, peppers, spinach, rice, wheat and corn with average of 30% increase in crop yield under salinity
conditions. After successfully piloting the prototype version of seeds treatment bio-technology, the team can confirm the
capability of its breakthrough product to open new markets starting in Europe with the potential for rapid growth, licensing
our technology to key seed players to obtain a salt-tolerant version of their own commercial seed-varieties.
By pursuing the present feasibility study, Salicrop’s management team aims to improve its understanding of international
market conditions and the associated risks as the company develops a deeper business plan for rolling out and scaling up
seed treatments licensing as a marketable innovative solution. SME Instrument Phase-1 and Phase-2 will be extremely
beneficial in helping the company to accelerate development and market penetration of the developed solution in target
segments, boosting the company’s growth to 28 employees and $53,500,000 revenues by 2025.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
4020000 KFAR VITKIN
Israel
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.