Key Takeaways
- Growers Edge and Sarga Agriscience have launched a performance-backed program for tomato growers under a “pay-when-it-works” model, allowing growers to apply Sarga's seaweed-based biological fertilizer with no upfront cost and only pay when yield improvements fully cover the input's cost.
- If results fall short of covering the input cost, growers owe nothing, removing the financial barrier that has historically slowed adoption of biological crop inputs despite demonstrated performance data.
- Sarga Agriscience has demonstrated equivalent yield increases of $1,000 per acre over two years of trials, including work with partners in the 100+ Accelerator Program and the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group.
- Sarga Agriscience is a division of Carbonwave and produces seaweed-based biological fertilizers; its products are positioned as sustainable alternatives to conventional crop inputs with measurable yield benefits for tomato growers.
- The partnership addresses a structural challenge in the biologicals market: grower hesitancy driven by perceived product risk and variability, even when performance claims are backed by independent trials and corporate validation.
Growers Edge, a financial technology firm providing modern financial products and data-driven tools for agricultural retailers, manufacturers, and lenders, has partnered with Sarga Agriscience, a division of Carbonwave that produces seaweed-based biological fertilizers. Together, the two companies have launched a performance-backed program for tomato growers that removes upfront financial risk from trying a new biological crop input by making payment contingent on yield performance.
Growers Edge and Sarga Agriscience: How the Program Works
Under the partnership's “pay-when-it-works” model, tomato growers can apply Sarga Agriscience's seaweed-based biological fertilizer at no upfront cost. Payment is only required when the yield improvement generated by the product fully covers the input's cost. If the results fall short, the grower owes nothing. Growers Edge provides the financial mechanism that makes this model operational, aligning its performance-backed product infrastructure with Sarga Agriscience's biological input.
“Growers shouldn't have to take on additional risk to try new technologies. By aligning payment with actual on-farm performance, this program gives growers a clear, measurable way to evaluate the input from Sarga Agriscience in their own fields,” said Elena Bell, Director of Sustainability at Growers Edge.
Why Grower Adoption of Biologicals Has Lagged
Despite a growing body of performance data, adoption of biological crop inputs has been held back by grower concerns over product variability and unclear composition claims. Sarga Agriscience has demonstrated equivalent yield increases of $1,000 per acre over two years of trials, including with partners in the 100+ Accelerator Program and with the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Yet the company found that independent validation alone was not sufficient to drive grower confidence at scale.
“We've found that no level of testing, even with corporate partners in the 100+ Accelerator Program or with the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, generates more trust than this model. We simply say, ‘Try it, and pay us when it works,'” said Jonas Kunz, Business Unit Director at Carbonwave's Sarga Agriscience.
Sarga Agriscience's Seaweed-Based Biological Fertilizers
Sarga Agriscience, a division of Carbonwave, produces seaweed-based biological fertilizers designed to boost crop yields as sustainable alternatives to conventional inputs. The partnership with Growers Edge is initially focused on tomato growers, with the performance-backed model designed to give growers a no-risk pathway to evaluate the product's impact in their own fields before committing to full commercial adoption.
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