- Qarbotech is shifting from validation to optimisation
- Agronomic data gaps are the next hurdle.
- Startup has ongoing pilots in more than 18 countries.
The startup’s technology, QarboGrow, contains carbon quantum dots produced from agricultural waste and was designed to enhance photosynthesis by helping plants make use of previously underutilised wavelengths of sunlight.
According to chief executive Chor Chee Hoe, the company’s photosynthesis enhancer, QarboGrow, has delivered rice yield increases of 10% to 180% in rice, though the company is still trying to understand why results vary so widely.
“Although we are very confident that our technology works, there are a lot of other growth factors that can somewhat limit the maximum performance of our product,” Chor told AgNavigator.
Today, the company’s goal is to identify the agronomic conditions that determine whether growers see modest productivity improvements or dramatic gains.
“We still have a lot of gaps in our data collection. The missing data is the nitty-gritty details of each farmer’s standard operating procedures. The nutrients and microbes they use, as well as factors such as soil content and different soil varieties. All these different parameters and factors impact the end outcome for farmers,” said Chor.
Filling in the data gaps
To close those knowledge gaps, the company is leveraging government and private grants to conduct more detailed agronomic studies.
One such programme focuses on oil palm, where researchers are analysing nutrient interactions, soil characteristics, microbial activity and plant responses alongside Qarbotech’s technology.
As the company expands internationally, understanding all these interactions has become a strategic priority.
“We want to know what the complementing SOP will be to maximise our product performance. We want to understand what the limiting factors that would not give the optimum outcome,” said Chor.
Chor believes the company’s future growth depends less on proving the technology works and more on identifying the conditions that allow farmers to extract the greatest value from it.
“The challenge now is to get this right. Like, what kind of combination of their current usage of products will help them maximise the outcome?”
Global pilots and expansion
The startup recently secured its first expansion into US, working on sugar beet.
According to Chor, Early trials have shown improvements in sugar content but less pronounced gains in yield that has been observed in rice production in South East Asia.
The company has hypothesised that this is because US production systems may already be highly optimised in terms of nutrient management, reducing the scope for dramatic yield gains.
In contrast, many rice farmers in SEA may over apply fertilisers, resulting in different production dynamics.
To investigate this, the company is working with agronomy partners in Illinois and Minnesota to study how nutrient regimes interact with enhanced photosynthesis under US growing conditions.
“We are going to spend a little more of our resources to study the nutrient elements and how, together with our photosynthesis enhancer, they can strike a balance to maximise yield outcomes,” said Chor.
It is currently running pilots in more than 18 countries, including the UK, China, Japan, Indonesia and the US, as it builds a broader dataset across crops, climates and farming systems.
