10109320Disease free pre-basic potato follow on trials in an aeroponic farming systemClosedLaunchpadInnovate UKThe UK Government food strategy (DEFRA, 2022) requires more sustainable, resilient and secure agricultural and horticultural production within the UK while maintaining employment in the food industry as part of the levelling up agenda. There is a need to maintain diversity in the food we eat to tackle, at source, health issues linked to diet. The British potato industry is valued at £3 billion p.a. when considering all parts of the supply chain. Worldwide the potato industry is worth £7.6 billion. Production starts with seed potatoes, and seed potato production in Great Britain accounts for 14% of GB's planted potato area, involving 300 registered seed growers worth £100m to the British economy and exporting to over 50 countries worldwide. All British seed multiplication chains start from disease-free nuclear stock (micro plants), grown in sterile conditions ensuring they are free from pathogenic organisms and are true to varietal type. Micro-plants are planted on a large scale to produce mini-tubers in six government-licenced micro-propagation facilities. Most mini-tubers are grown on in sterile peat in sealed, temperature-controlled greenhouses and poly-tunnels, with a limited number of mini-tubers being produced using the hydroponic or aeroponic systems. At this stage, mini-tubers are classed as Pre-Basic TC (tissue culture) which are released to approved growers for cultivation in the field and classed as Pre-Basic (PB). The Aponic International Limited (AIL) aeroponic farming system (Patent Number GB2532467 and patent application GB2307951.0) is a scalable, low energy aeroponic system for retrofitting to any suitable industrial or agricultural building that can grow a wide range of crop plants including root crops (IUK project 10043559).