Cold Plasma Technology has various uses including medicine, waste treatment, surface modification, coating and deposition, textile, semiconductor manufacturing, solar cells, cosmetics and agriculture. In this week’s paper we are going to focus on the agricultural applications of cold plasma. There are two main uses of cold plasma in agriculture crops and foods: inactivation of harmful microorganisms and the acceleration of seed germination and crop growth.

In agricultural fields, pesticides are used to protect crops from various insects and microorganisms. However, these agricultural chemicals, such as thiabendazole, imazalil, ortho-phenylphenol, are harmful to human body and environments. By using plasma technologies, we can reduce or even eliminate the need to use these pesticides.

In our company we can successfully reduce carcinogenic substance called aflatoxin that are found on agricultural crops such as corn, peanuts, cottonseed, tree nuts, fig etc. Aflatoxin is mainly produced by certain fungi. Cold plasma technology can also reduce the fungal attachment to seeds to below 1% of the initial level, while preserving germination quality of the seeds.

Cold plasma technology can increase germination rate of seeds. Plasma treatment can make very impactful changes, such as improving germination rate of seeds by approximately 3 times compared to untreated seeds. In addition, the reactive species generated by cold plasma can break seed dormancy and improve water uptake, leading to faster and more uniform germination. Also, exposure to cold plasma can stimulate plant growth and increase crop yields. The reactive species produced by cold plasma can enhance nutrient uptake, increase photosynthesis, and improve overall plant vigor.

There are many advantages of using cold plasma technology in agriculture. Cold plasma can inactivate microorganisms very efficiently at low temperatures (<50°C). This allows the preservation of crops and seed’s germination quality. Since the application of cold plasma technology is free of water or any type of solvent, it is considered environmentally friendly. Cold plasma technology is energy efficient, because most cold plasma sources require little energy input.