Desert to food garden: SaliCrop’s seed treatment yields climate-resistant flavorful tomatoes

15 Feb 2024 --- SaliCrop, an AgriTech start-up on seed treatment, has developed a novel, non-GMO approach to bolster seeds’ resilience to abiotic stresses brought on by extreme climate challenges. Leveraging their expertise in desert technology, SaliCrop’s innovation intends to boost crop cultivation in arid regions.

Despite facing challenges such as water shortages and soil suitability issues, there remains a need to maintain a robust agrarian economy to ensure food security.

“Arid regions face heightened challenges,” Carmit Oron, CEO of SaliCrop, tells Food Ingredients First. “SaliCrop tech enables plants to thrive with greater resilience. This not only boosts agricultural productivity but also offers farmers a sense of security regarding their economic investments in crops in those arid areas for years to come.”

Helping farmers
SaliCrop’s benefits are already taking root in Spain’s tomato industry, where saline soil and heat stress pose significant challenges. Collaborating with farmers in Extremadura, SaliCrop has witnessed improvements in tomato yields and quality despite the region experiencing extremely high temperatures and water scarcity.

“The greatest concern occupying farmers today is how to maintain yields in the face of volatile and harsh climate conditions which lead to poor soil quality,” explains Sharon Devir, Ph.D., co-founder and active chairperson of SaliCrop.

“More than 830 million hectares of agricultural land is now salty. Abiotic stresses are responsible for 30-50% loss of agricultural productivity worldwide. This amounts to a colossal US$170 billion in revenue losses yearly.”

To help farmers who grow crops in vast open fields, SaliCrop joined with its partners, who supplied them with a sample of seeds for calibration, along with agronomic data specific to their region and crop cultivation.

“We initiated the calibration process at SaliCrop Labs, which typically spans 6-10 weeks. Following this, we conduct a Proof of Concept on our partners’ lands, allocating up to 1 hectare for the trial,” says Oron.

“Upon achieving success in the first year, we progress to a pre-commercial stage covering up to 10 hectares and several locations, with control plots maintained on a smaller scale within commercial fields. Finally, in the last stage, we transition into full commercial sales, leveraging our proven results and established confidence in the product.”

Carmit Oron, CEO of SaliCrop.Nurturing growth amid adversity
At the heart of SaliCrop’s innovation is its proprietary seed enhancement technology, developed by Dr. Ṛcā Godbole, co-founder and chief science officer of the company. Dr. Godbole drew inspiration from her experiences assisting smallholder farmers in coastal regions of Mumbai, India, grappling with soil salinity issues. 

“Plants have certain environmental stress-inducible genes that act as internal alarms. When there is too much salt or too much heat, these alarms go off, and the plant enters defense mode. But often, by the time the plant reacts, it’s too late,” she says. 

Alongside Devir, a mechanical agronomist who established the first Arab-Israeli life science technology greenhouse in Nazareth, Israel, Dr. Godbole conducted experiments cultivating wheat and vegetables using saltwater irrigation within a controlled environment.

SaliCrop has designed seed enhancement protocols to improve plant resilience by intentionally exposing the seeds to controlled abiotic stressors. Without changing the plant’s DNA, SaliCrop’s green solution acts as a gentle nudge to preemptively stimulate the stress responses before the plant finds itself in salty or hot conditions.

“The technology is tailor-made for specific crop varieties and the stresses they encounter. We have already developed formulas tailored to address various crops such as rice, capsicum, hot chili peppers, alfalfa, onions, open-field tomatoes, and more.” 

“Our innovation turns marginal lands, previously considered barren, into fertile grounds capable of abundant food production. As climate change intensifies, farmers globally are in need of sustainable solutions to adapt and succeed,” Oron concludes.

By Sichong Wang