Edete Precision Technologies for Agriculture: Artificial pollination
Edete Precision Technologies for Agriculture addresses dwindling bee populations and climate change-induced desynchronizing bloom of male and female trees by deploying high-efficiency artificial pollination as a service for insect-pollinated crops such as almonds and wind-pollinated crops such as pistachios.
The firm mechanically harvests flowers, separates the pollen from other flower parts, stores it for one to several years using a proprietary method, and then disperses it on trees using a controllable dozer enabling the precise dispersal of single grams or parts of grams of pollen per tree.
For pistachios, which rely on overlap between male and female flowering, with insufficient chilling, male and female trees will not bloom together, which results in deficient pollination and a reduction in yields, said Edete.
"Collecting pollen the previous year and preserving it for application the next overcomes the desynchronization between male and female flowering."
Following successful trials in Israel, Australia, and the US, Edete started commercializing its technology with pistachios in Bakersfield, California, this year.