24 August 2019 | New Scientist | 43think the effect was real, if erratic.
The US Department of Agriculture
conducted some experiments at Arlington
Experimental Farm, near Washington DC,
but these, too, were difficult to interpret.
Many patents were taken out, but the
technique never took off in the US either.
Research in electroculture slowed to a trickle
for some 50 years. Then, in the 1980s, Liu began
looking into the technique as a researcher at
the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University in
Hohhot, China. He says he had been fascinated
by the effect of lightning on soil nutrients, and
began looking into whether electricity boosted
the growth of wheat and barley. Around this
time, the Chinese government began giving
out grants in agricultural science, allowing him
to expand his study.Power plants
Liu began developing what he calls the
“space electric field” method. There is usually
a natural vertical electric potential gradient in
the air of about 100 volts per metre. Liu began
setting up experiments in greenhouses where
that was increased to between 700 and 20,000
volts per metre. Electrical wires were strung
above the crops and the field emanated from
these. He began seeing impressive
improvements in crop yields: increases in
lettuce and cucumber by up to 40 per cent,
and similar improvements for potato, radish
and fennel. Liu worked with a company in the
southern Chinese city of Shenzhen to develop
a commercial generator to power the wires in- Within a few years, electroculture
greenhouses were being set up in Beijing,
Dalian and Tianjin.
The motivation wasn’t just to increase
yields, though. In China, there is widespread
public wariness about food safety, following
several high-profile incidents in which illegal
pesticides were found on produce. Fruit and
vegetables are almost never eaten raw or
unpeeled out of concern over harmful
chemicals. Because of this, there was interest
in electroculture as a possible alternative to
pesticides. “There’s a big focus on eco-friendly
farming right now,” says Liu. “We are looking at
how to combine physics-based and biological
techniques to reduce pesticide use, while still
maintaining crop yield.”
In 2013, Liu, now based at the Dalian City
Academy of Agricultural Sciences, introduced
a second electroculture technique called
“charged cultivation”. This involves overhead
wires again, but this time the current they
generate runs through the plants, says Tong >
GETTYLodge cultivated a large field of wheat with
wires strung above it and saw a 24 per cent
boost in the grain harvest. The words in the
North American Review seemed to ring true:
“It is difficult to explain why the electric
current so marvellously affects the growth
of plants, but the fact that such stimulation
does occur cannot be denied.”
At the end of the first world war in 1918,
the UK set up the Electro-Culture Committee,
a group of scientists and farmers, and asked it
to find out whether electroculture was worth
pursuing. The committee experimented
through the 1920s with wheat, oats, peas and
potatoes, but the results were frustratingly
inconsistent. This, together with the cost of
electricity, eventually doomed electroculture.
“Increases of 20 per cent can hardly be
considered economic even if obtained in most
years,” said the committee’s final report in
- Nevertheless, the scientists seemed to
“ Plants may take
applied electric
fields as a signal
of impending
rainfall”