Startup helps farmers to monetise their reductions of greenhouse gas emissions
Another finalist has developed a kit to help farmers rapidly test animals for parasites, so that they can treat only those animals found to be infected. File Picture.
An Irish company that helps farmers to monetise their reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, as market premiums or through the carbon offsets market, has been announced as a Thrive Europe Challenge finalist.
Also making the last 10 of the competition for Europe’s best start-ups and scale-ups is Micron Agritech, which has developed a kit to help farmers rapidly test animals for parasites, so that they can treat only those animals found to be infected.
The Thrive Europe Challenge is closely aligned with the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy within the European Green Deal, which seeks to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, while doubling down on achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
The winner will receive the Thrive Europe Challenge Award and advance to the finals of the global Thrive Accelerator Programme.
Finalists gain recognition as the most promising agri-food companies in Europe, exposure to investors, brand amplification through Forbes Media and Thrive communication channels, and access to expert mentors and advisors and Thrive's extensive global entrepreneur network.
Founded by Luis Alejandro Vergara at University College Dublin, Carbon Harvesters monitors farms' emissions on a weekly basis, promotes the implementation of climate mitigation strategies, and certifies the emissions reductions, to monetise them as market premiums or through the carbon offsets market, thus increasing the resilience of rural communities.
With over-medication of livestock leading to resistance to parasites (which are the most common cause of ill-health in grazing animals), and the EU moving to ban treatment without prescription in 2022, the Micron Agritech pen-side testing kit that allows farmers or vets to rapidly detect parasitic infections in livestock is a product for its time.
Full results within an hour allow farmers to avoid unnecessary dosing. Otherwise, they wait for days to get lab results -- or blanket treat animals without testing, a practice which has contributed to parasites being resistant to treatment on most farms. This blanket dosing is unnecessary 40% of the time.
Micron Agritech, a TU Dublin Hothouse spin-out, has been working over the past 18 months to validate their technology and are poised to start selling it in 2022.
It is being tested on farms around the country.
Daniel Izquierdo of Micron Agritech, and Luis Alejandro Vergara of Carbon Harvesters will be pitching to a Thrive Europe Challenge judging panel on October 7.
Other finalists alongside the two Irish companies are Gro Sustain, developing biological plant protection such as fungicides and coatings; the Agxeed.com autonomous platform; the Spherag autonomous bi-directional gateway-less platform for cloud management of farm sensors; Greeneye Technology artificial intelligence for pest control with precise and selective spraying; the Lupinta plant-based protein project using lupin beans; the Eniferbio alternative to soy feed for fish farming; the Gardin optical sensors and analytics to measure crop physiology; and the CBN Agro.tech system to maximise grain value.
