With organic food lovers on the rise farmers do not have to use chemicals anymore to treat seeds for fungal spores or viruses. Researchers from Fraunhofer Institute for Electron Beam and Plasma Technology, Germany, developed a way to bombard seeds with electrons to kill the pathogens that caused diseases. When electrons hit the seeds, they destroyed the chemical bonds that held together the molecules in the fungal spores and other pathogens, but without generating heat. At the same time, the intensity of the electron beam was maintained in such a way that the seeds did not suffer any damage. The device can treat 30 tonnes of seeds per hour.

Source: Down To Earth
Date: October, 2008