The world's population is growing, increasing food demand far beyond arable land availability, so producers need a way to increase their yield using current acreage

Global Neighbor, Inc. was awarded a $174,999 project grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program to develop Directed Energy Seed Priming technology. The grant, effective July 1, 2023 through February 29, 2024, will fund the design, validation, and commercialization of a seed priming technique that uses directed energy to increase soybean germination rates and yields. By improving seed emergence and stand establishment, this technology aims to boost soybean output and farmer profitability without requiring additional acreage. The SBIR/STTR programs support scientific and technological innovation to strengthen the national economy by stimulating small business innovation.

Low-cost methods to increase yields in the reality of changing environmental stress is critical to agriculture production, and new economical and environmentally friendly seed priming techniques can provide this increase despite changing climate and environmental conditions. IT is widely understood that getting crops started earlier helps them compete with weeds. Higher germination rates result in more uniform stands, which has been shown to have a 9-22% increase in crop yields, increasing producer profitability without increasing land requirements. GNI's directed energy seed priming (DESP) technology provides a way to increase germination rates and hasten emergence of seeds, seamlessly integrating with existing practices without adding labor or having any environmental impact. This proposal is centered around determining the technical viability of an aftermarket upgrade kit for the integration of DESP into a commercially available planter. GNI will also further quantify the market potential of a DESP-enhanced planter, and the impacts such a product will have on farmer productivity and profitability. By the end of this project, GNI, with the support of collaborator CNH industrial (CNH), will have verified the feasibility of a DESP aftermarket upgrade kit for a commercially available CNH planter, at the specified power levels and targeted price and profitability points. The specific objectives to achieve this are:1. Design DESP prototype,2. Validate DESP prototype with field trial,3. Refine DESP row-unit design into full-planter commercial implementation, AND4. Disseminate findingsphase I will provide a detailed design of a commercially viable product, ready to be used for soybeans. Seed priming on row crops with DE holds the promise of sustainably increasing output from each acre by 5-10%, providing a broad societal benefit of increased food security, and the adoption of more sustainable farming practices. With the U.S. Soybean market being on the order of $50B, if soybean output could be increased by 5%, the proposed effort holds the promise of boosting U.S. Agricultural output by over $2B/year for domestic soybean producers, representing a tremendous return on investment for the project.with the results of phase I, GNI, its collaborators, and the broader AG research community will understand the effectiveness of DE seed priming and its viability as a scalable solution. The outcome will stimulate follow-up research into other crops where priming would be of significance. Phase II will expand research across full growing seasons to better understand the potential and test across other commodities.