What is the problem being addressed?
Plant physiology is studied rather less than that of animals. In fact, there are very few instruments, and none that are easy to use, that enable us to understand, in real time, the health of a plant or its response to environmental changes. For animals we have an array of such instruments from stethoscopes, through ECGs and X-Ray machines, to CAT scanners. PhytlSigns biosensors for plants measures and records small electric signals within the plant, translates them into digital form and visualizes them for further analysis. PhytlSigns allows researchers to investigate plant electrophysiology and enables growers of greenhouse crops to detect plant stressors, such as drought, salt stress or insect attack, while damage is still limited, allowing earlier interventions thereby saving growers thousands of euros per greenhouse and growth cycle.
Because the electrical activity of plants is negligible compared to the electromagnetic interference around them, measurements were only possible in laboratories with Faraday cages and other expensive equipment, which severely limited their practical application. Vivent has developed biosensors that work in plants’ natural environments, without Faraday cages, opening up research possibilities and importantly, applications for crop growers.
PhytlSigns is currently used by plant researchers (such as University of Lausanne, Sao Paolo & Tel Aviv, Agroscope, INRA) to measure responses of experimental plants and greenhouse crops to biotic and abiotic stressors.
Why is it important to society?
World population will grow to 9bn people by 2050. It is a certainty that food production will have to grow by 50% over current levels without consuming any more land or water. At the same time, existing agricultural technology is vulnerable to serious blights that can decimate production. Examples include the spread of Xylella Fastidiosa through Europe’s olive groves and the devastation of the Florida orange production through Citrus Greening. A technological transformation of horticulture is required with the objective of significantly increased yields. Understanding plant physiology is key, and the PhytlSigns biosensor provides an easy-to-use, relatively low-cost instrument which spans the needs of researchers and growers.
What are the overall objectives?
The overall objective of this project is to develop a European based, global business that will develop markets and supply products that use electrical signals in plants to increase understanding of plant physiology and help growers increase yields. Our current prototype product (TR6) is already widely acknowledged to be world-leading by the academic community of plant electrophysiologists. Our challenge is to turn this position into a sustainable, commercially stable and profitable business.
PhytlSigns aims to achieve 12% share of the €100m total target market for equipment for plant researchers and 3% share of the €600m market of smart agriculture equipment for plant producers (in greenhouses) Vivent forecasts €35m+ revenues, €250k R&D spending & 80+ employees, with more than 80% of those in Europe by 2023 for an investment of €1.8m.
