b'Heliae AgricultureGilbert, Ariz.Regenerating Soil with Nature-Based Microalgal SolutionsOver the past 150 years, agricul- use by Canadian farmers.Product in 2021 by Seed World tural advancements have improvedAs water and nutrient efficien- Group, PhycoTerra ST also received efficiency and productivity, thoughcies become paramount, the need forrecognition for Innovation of the in some cases, created unintendedinnovations like these will only beYear from the Ag Tech Breakthrough consequences including soil erosioncompounded, says Cassidy Million,Awards program this year and and degradation. To feed a growingdirector of ag science for HeliaeProduct of the Year by the Algae population and combat extreme cli- Agriculture.Biomass Organization.mate stress, growers need solutionsGrowers need to to minimize erosion, regain topsoil,make better use of rebuild soil quality, and increasethe microorganisms crop yield.already living in their As an algal tech company, Heliaesoil and that all starts Agriculture creates scalable regenera- with tending to soil tive solutions for growers worldwidehealth. Microalgae to improve soil health, using thetechnology is going power of microalgae to improve soilto be a very impor-health, increase water and nutrienttant part of the way uptake, and manage conditions aris- that we farm and ing from climate change, like droughtgrow food for the and flooding.future.PhycoTerra ST, the companys seedNamed as a Top treatment, was recently approved for10 Most Innovative AgmatixTel Aviv, IsraelLearning how Agriculture Contributes to Climate ChangeSustainability is critical to the suc- go up. When yields rise, you take a cess of this Israeli companys effortshigher risk when it comes to diseases to meet the growing global demandlike SDS, says Sagi Katz, vice-presi-for food, fuel, and fibre. Agmatixdent of agronomy for Agmatix. assists agri-businesses, food proces- Were looking at how grow-sors and NGOs by providing data- ers can find the best time to plant driven technologies that help quantifysoybean seed to help them reduce crop nutrition and the correspondingthe risk and better predict how they environmental footprint of agronomicmight be affected by SDS. If we can practices.help them reduce their risk, we can Its algorithms calculate the carbonincrease the return on investment footprint and greenhouse gas emis- for the farmer and for the industry sions based on different parametersas a whole. Eventually, we can help such as field characteristics (soil type,develop a decision support system organic matter, pH); environmentala leading cause of the decline inthat will allow farmers to make better conditions; agronomic practices; cropsoybean crop yield in North America.decisions.type & stages; inputs & timing, yieldA coalition of extension pathologistsUltimately, the Agmatix platform and residue management. want to be able to predict where SDSenables the development of statis-The companys technology wasoutbreaks are most likely to occurtically and scientifically stronger used in early 2022 by researchers inand the severity of their occurrence. agricultural models, which helps to Ontario and the American MidwestTheres a huge demand for thisreduce food waste and support the to study soybean sudden deathamong growers, including research- issues of world food poverty and a syndrome (SDS), which has becomeers from Canada, as soybean yieldsgrowing global population.NOVEMBER 2022GERMINATION.CA 13'