A new spray "varnish" for greenhouses could result in better-tasting and more abundant crops while extending the growing season and improving food security for less sunny regions such as the United Kingdom.
The University of Bath announced that its team's revolutionary spray — developed with researchers from the University of Cambridge and in partnership with agritech company Lambda Agri — has resulted in a 9% boost in basil crop yield in field tests compared to plants grown in untreated greenhouses.
According to the release, the greenhouse treatment works by converting blue light from the sun into red light — the "most efficient" wavelength for photosynthesis. With the plants having more red light to use, crop growth increased.
"The way our coating works is similar to when you go to a night club and your gin and tonic drink glows under the UV light – the quinine chemical in the tonic water is absorbing the UV and re-emitting it as visible light," explained professor Petra Cameron, with the University of Bath's Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change.
"There is even some evidence that suggests it improves the taste by raising the sugar content in the fruit," Cameron added.
Moreover, the photosynthesis efficiency means cloudy days and long winter nights may ultimately be less of a concern in the U.K. and other regions with similar climates. The U.K. imports most of its fruits and vegetables from other European countries because of its short growing season, as the University of Bath explained.
That produce overwhelmingly comes from artificially lit greenhouses that use large amounts of electricity, resulting in heat-trapping gases entering the atmosphere if the energy source is a dirty fuel. Also, transporting fruits and vegetables is a particularly energy-intensive process because they require refrigeration during shipment.
More intense extreme weather linked to rising global temperatures is threatening global food security, but the greenhouse treatment could eliminate much of the planet-warming pollution associated with getting food to tables by enabling growers to provide more sustainably produced local fruits and veggies.
"Our coating contains molecules that absorb UV light from the sun and converts around 80-90% of it into red light, making photosynthesis more efficient, meaning we can grow more with less light," Cameron said in the release.
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The concept of improving photosynthetic efficiency isn't new, according to the University of Bath, but similar technologies are more expensive because they use rare earth metals such as indium, which is also notoriously difficult to recycle. However, the scientists' patent-pending tech overcomes this by using a low-cost, abundant material instead.
The team published its findings in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies, and it believes it can make its tech commercially available over the next few years, with two U.K. government grants "heavily" backing the developing agricultural solution, per the release.
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