Weeds don’t stand a chance versus the weed seed destroyer
Want to eliminate weeds in your fields? Kill them when they are seeds. That’s the basis behind Global Neighbor’s weed seed destroyer.
“We use light applied at high intensity for short duration to make weed seeds non-viable,” says John Jackson from Global Neighbor, a company based in in Dayton, Ohio. “It is easy to use, operates independently from the combine, so there’s no warranty issues, and does not create any maintenance issues for the farmer.”
Global Neighbor is one of five finalists in the AgLaunch and Farm Journal Row Crop Challenge, which aids early-stage ag tech startups to solve on-farm programs. The finalists shared pitch videos during the Top Producer Summit, and Global Neighbor received the most votes from attendees and the “Top Producer Summit Top Pick” honor.
In the U.S., herbicide resistance costs farmers $2 billion a year, and that cost keeps increasing, Jackson says.
“Even a small number of weed seeds at the wrong time reduces yield and lowers profits,” he says. “Our initial target market includes farmers experiencing severe herbicide resistant weeds and organic farmers who are in need of solutions for chemical-free weed control.”
The company has completed $3 billion of research and development and has received a research grant from USDA. It already has a consumer-facing produce, WeedErase, on the market.
