Muju Earth's Seed-Sized Aeropod to Begin Paid UK Soil Trials

The company is targeting a problem it says is pressing for farmers worldwide: the equipment used to till, plant and harvest fields is killing margins. Studies have estimated that soil compaction can reduce yields by 20% to 60%. Plowing can help, but Muju Earth says it is a laborious and expensive task that harms soil health in different ways.

The Aeropod is designed as an alternative. Ifeoluwa Afolayan, Muju Earth's co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch that the device is "built like a seed, it sows like a seed, and it ships like a seed." Farmers drop it in the soil alongside their seeds using the same equipment, with no need to till the soil in advance. "It just really seems like a no-brainer," Afolayan said.

After the Aeropod is exposed to a combination of temperature, pressure and moisture, it bursts open, loosening the soil and creating small channels that let air, water and roots move through it more easily. Muju Earth says the device can promote better soil health while cutting farmers' tilling costs by half or more.

Muju Earth has tested its devices in lab settings and is embarking on paid field trials this fall in the UK. Nine farmers are participating, and the startup has more than 30 on a waitlist. Its initial target market is onion growers in the UK because onions are particularly sensitive to soil compaction, Afolayan said.

The startup also gave cost estimates. Tilling a field once might cost around £250 to £400 per hectare when factoring in labor costs, diesel and wear-and-tear on equipment, according to Afolayan. Aeropods should produce similar results at just £100 per hectare, she said.

Aeropods were born during Afolayan's and co-founder Wangyang Hu's time at Imperial College London, where they sought to design a product that would improve farmers' bottom lines while also aiding soil health. Afolayan said the Aeropod's development was driven by a single question: "How do you make this as simple as sowing a seed?" She added, "That's the most equitable practice across every farmer on the planet."

In addition to farmers, Muju Earth has heard from companies developing biologic amendments, products added to soil, often containing living microbes, that boost or replace chemical fertilizers. Because those companies' products work best in aerated soils, they are interested in pairing with Aeropods. But Afolayan said farmers themselves have been leading adoption, and most marketing to date has been inbound. "The best thing about Aeropod is the farmers intuitively understand the proposition," she said.