Light Science Technologies Holdings (LSTH) plc, the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) technology and contract electronics manufacturing (CEM) group, is set to receive a grant of £209,506 as part of a 36-month £1.74m collaboration, funded by The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Transforming Food Production Challenge.

The project, Transformative Reduced Input Potatoes (TRIP), consortium includes a range of commercial potato growers across England – from Lincolnshire to Cornwall – and includes farms owned and managed by Dyson Farming Ltd. It will test out a range of regenerative cultivation methods that could reduce the environmental damage caused by producing potatoes.

As part of the collaboration the Derbyshire company will add Nitrous Oxide sensing capabilities to its existing SensorGROW product and supply sensors to various growing sites, phased to be delivered in Q2 2024.

Over the 36-month period TRIP will investigate new breeds of disease resistant potato, new nutrient treatments for use on leaves instead of soil, reduced tillage methods including use of mulches as a growing medium and new methods to monitor greenhouse gas emissions from farmers’ fields.

Dyson Farming, The James Hutton Institute, Emerald Research, The Sarvari Research Trust and scientists from Bangor University’s School of Environmental and Natural Science and Biocomposites Centre will all collaborate with LSTH on the project.

Dr Christine Jones, Dyson Farming, said: “Many farmers are seeking ways of producing their crops more sustainably but the particular requirements for growing a potato crop can make it a challenge to incorporate potatoes into a sustainable rotation.

“Outcomes from the TRIP project can be expected to offer growers a range of methods to reduce inputs to, and impact from, potato crops. Collaboration between the TRIP partners provides an exciting opportunity to bring together different areas of development and to turn science into practice for potato growers.”

Simon Deacon, Chief Executive Officer of LSTH, said: “We are delighted to be involved in such a strong consortium and grateful for the support of UKRI and Defra. This will be an exciting opportunity to take SensorGROW from indoor to outdoor growing, while enabling the company to forge new relationships within the research, policy, and commercial growing pools.”