A greenhouse result is one of the earliest deliverables for a new MIT-led weed-control project. The team expects to finish initial greenhouse tests of RNA-based candidates by the end of its first year. On November 10, MIT announced an award of up to $53 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health for the effort, called Precision Learning for On-target Weed control, or PLOW.
The health agency is backing the work through its STREAM agricultural-inputs program. The project brings together concerns that normally land on different desks. Farmers face weeds that have become resistant to familiar products. Exposure matters to workers and nearby communities. Some widely used farm chemicals also depend on imported raw materials, leaving producers exposed to disruptions far from the field.
The proposed research includes computational design, laboratory screening and greenhouse evaluation. The team plans to feed laboratory results back into its models as it narrows the pool of candidates. Researchers from universities and the agricultural technology company Robigo are expected to participate. MIT describes lower production costs, reduced health and environmental risks, and effective weed control as goals of the work.
What the first result could establish
Moving from a screen to a greenhouse puts a candidate in the company of growing plants. A promising result there would give the team a reason to keep investing in that candidate. It would still leave growers with practical questions about how consistently it works across farms, how much a treatment costs per acre and what evidence supports its safe use. The award funds a search whose commercial outcome remains open.