Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** our goal is to develop, validate,…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** our goal is to develop, validate, and commercialize an innovative, integrated system that enables growers to germinate seeds on the farm and to then precisely plant them in the field. As envisioned, this innovation will replace costly and labor-intensive transplant-based methods while maintaining high crop establishment. Since transplants require heated/ventilated structures, eliminating the need for transplants boosts energy efficiency and cuts costs. Our lighter-weight equipment reduces soil compaction, promoting soil health. Our main phase II objective is to capitalize on our phase i sbir success by validating a proprietary, autonomous integrated planting system that prepares and plants one – and only one – germinated tomato seed at a time and that meets/exceeds all performance requirements in actual field conditions.growers face increasing difficulty finding and affording the labor required to produce vegetable crops. The eden solution reduces labor up to 96% and produces more food with lower input costs.food production must expand worldwide to support a growing population. Improving farm productivity directly benefits society by expanding the availability of nutritious, affordable food. Vegetables are significant crops in the U.S. In terms of food sources and farm profitability. Fresh market tomatoes, for example, are one of the highest-value crops grown in the U.S., with a value of about $648 million in 2022. Florida is the top producer with over half of the nation's total production.one challenge for growers that limits productivity and profit is the need to grow starter plants for vegetables in greenhouses (or to purchase them), and to then transplant them into tilled soil. The process is highly labor-intensive and expensive, relies on fossil fuels for transplant production and transplanting, and uses heavy farm equipment that compacts the soil. Successful commercialization of the new autonomous system we are developing would eliminate the critical drawbacks of current planting approaches. Our technology's autonomous features enable growers to eliminate most of the labor used to acquire/grow/plant transplants – increasingly hard-to-acquire labor. Our technology will provide major social/economic benefits by reducing the labor and time required to get seeds in place and to wait for germination. As an all-electric technology, fossil fuel use in planting will be eliminated. Thus, the system makes a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases. Finally, as a much lighter-weight system, soil compaction is reduced, and growers can also plant when fields may be too wet for incumbent equipment to enter the fields.farmers will have more flexibility when they DON't rely on available transplant varieties from third parties, and they will save money by reducing the high energy costs related to greenhouses and transplanting. Further, the implementation simplicity of the eden system will enable those farms not currently growing vegetables to, begin growing them without investing in greenhouses to grow transplants and to find, train, and retain labor to transplant the crops and use fossil fuels to plant the crops. The anticipated low barrier to entry will enable these crops to be grown in new areas – e.g., lettuce may be field-grown in fertile midwest soils near major cities such as chicago. The eden system will enable planting lettuce when the soil is too warm for in-ground germination but when enough growing season remains to produce the crop before frost. This would reduce transportation costs and related greenhouse gases by eliminating the need to ship this produce from california. As climate changes, this flexibility to adapt to new growing regions/conditions will be increasingly important. Growing fresh vegetables close to the consumer provides higher quality and more nutritious food. The ability of a country to grow more of its own food improves its security by reducing its dependence upon other countries for the food or the labor to produce IT.the labor-saving quality of this innovative solution applies to all farm sizes. Some 98% of U.S. Farms are family farms, producing 87% of all farm output. Small farms, classified as having annual gross cash farm income of less than $350,000, make up 89% of U.S. Farms. These farms accounted for nearly 75% of high-value crops such as vegetables, fruit/tree nuts, and nursery/greenhouse products. Although they comprise a high percentage of U.S. Farms, these farms have higher financial risk, and about 40% report having off-farm income. Surveys show that more time spent on farm work reduces the time available for off-farm employment. Improving productivity and reducing the costs for these farms can significantly increase our food supply by enabling these farms to produce more food and be more profitable. The solution clearly provides major potential benefits to all farm sizes concurrently.