MycoFarming

Over het initiatief / About the initiative

MycoFarming

In welke fase zit jouw initiatief? / In what stage is your initiative?

Startupfase

Heb je jouw initiatief al gevalideerd? / Did you validate your initiative?

We are validating this initiative with a world leading researcher on the technology

Meer informatie over jouw initiatief / More info about your initiative

The farmer’s crisis shone some light over a fundamental problem in our agricultural systems. Nitrogen leaching causes eutrophication, which causes our water bodies to become a festering pool for bacteria, saturated with microscopic algae, undrinkable for us, and deadly even for fish. To prevent and remediate this, we are designing a solution combining the latest biological and technological innovations. Mycofiltration is a process by which one can use fungi to absorb undesired elements from water and can be used in farms to filter out nitrogen, phosphorus and bacterial emissions. Along with this, we are developing nitrogen sensors using the internet of things and cloud computing to detect areas of high emissions in farms and apply remediating techniques like mycofiltration only where its needed. The pieces are out there to come out of this crisis, it’s just a matter of putting them together, and that’s what we have been doing at MycoFarming for the past year.

Wat is er anders/nieuw aan jouw idee/oplossing t.o.v. bestaande oplossingen? / What is different/new about your idea/solution compared to existing solutions??

For mycofiltration:
It is completely organic, making the most out of natural resources to reduce our emissions.
It is sustainable, by utilizing agricultural waste products as a resource.
It makes farms clean by reducing our surface runoff emissions by up to 86% for nitrogen, 92% for phosphorus, and 99% for bacteria.
It increases and diversifies our food production by growing perfectly edible gourmet mushrooms as a by-product.

Our sensors:
Are cost-effective; a research grade sensor is valued at about 10000 euros. We are developing industry grade sensors for about 1/10th of the price.
Require minimum calibration, just selecting the type of soil measuring. Research grade sensors require precise measuring conditions, oftentimes even require soil solutions to work, making them impractical to use directly in the field.

Along with our sensors, we are designing a supporting infrastructure to connect them and display obtained data on an online analytics dashboard.

Wat zijn jouw volgende stappen om het verder te ontwikkelen? / What are your next steps to develop the initiative?

We are designing a feasibility study for the mycological innovation with one of the world leaders in this technology. This study is set to begin in July/August this year and takes place in Amstel Park. Along with this, our tech team is developing nitrogen sensors to test out in Amstel Park as well.
And besides our research, we are starting a media campaign to spread the word about these innovations and how they can help us reduce our emissions, to be able to grow sustainably.

Wat heb je nodig om (nog meer) impact te maken met dit initiatief? / What do you need to make (more) impact with this initiative?

We need funding to complete our feasibility studies (for staff, materials and equipment)
And we need connections to the government and the farmers, to open communication channels between these parties and MycoFarming, so that we can work out the best way of communicating and integrating these innovations.