SBM-TranspiratiONal

The world's population is rapidly increasing putting pressure on our ability to grow sufficient food whilst maintaining the health and well-being of our planet. Over 10 million tons of plastic mulch film is used by agriculture globally each year to increase crop productivity. But at the end of each cropping cycle, this plastic is disposed by incineration or buried in landfills, or it is dumped. Incineration leads to the dispersion of poisonous gases into the environment. Breakdown of the plastics in landfills and in the soil is very slow without the influence of UV degradation. The slow speed means fragments of the plastic (microplastics) will detrimentally effect soil structure and subsequently soil water balance, chemistry and microbiology. The microplastic fragments can also be carried quickly into streams and rivers and arriving into the ocean where they affect all forms of aquatic life. Eventually entering the human body when we consume contaminated seafood. Our mission is to eliminate the use of plastics in agricultural farming practices. TranspiratiONal has developed a sprayable biodegradable mulch (SBM) that replaces plastic mulch films in horticulture and high-value cropping. SBM has been successfully tested on various crops and we know it: 1) Increases water savings 2) Provides weed suppression 3) Increases crop yield 4) Biodegrades in the soil and is non-toxic 5) Eliminates the cost of plastic mulch film removal and disposal With benefits and costs of using SBM comparable to the use of traditional plastic mulch films, TranspiratiONal-SBM is positioned to encourage farmers away from plastics mulch films to our environmentally friendly and novel product. SBM will pave the pathway for environmentally sustainable farming practices SBM technology is IP protected and our field trial data has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.