World Food Forum: Young entrepreneurs harness the power of technology to drive agrifood systems transformation

Rome – The finalists of the World Food Forum’s global startup competition, pitched their ventures centering on ways to create sustainable agrifood systems, at the Startup Innovation Awards on Wednesday.

Powered by Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), the hybrid event held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), brought innovators, investors, and experts alike, to support the next generation of young entrepreneurs in their pursuit to create a better planet for all through impactful businesses.

Opening the event, FAO Deputy Director-General, Beth Bechdol noted, “today, we will hear how this year’s finalists are taking climate action, bringing real solutions to the table to make healthy food accessible for all people across the world.”

“We know too that it takes everyone to try to contribute, support, invest and be a part of bringing these solutions to actions,” she added.

This year, the World Food Forum is committed to the theme “Agrifood systems transformation accelerates climate action.” Currently, agrifood systems account for one-third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and is the single greatest cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss.  

To address such challenges, young entrepreneurs from around the world are taking action to transform agrifood systems by bringing sustainable and innovative solutions to life.

The competition ushered in over 400 applicants from 69 countries earlier in the year and in the last round of events, eight finalists competed in the categories of FAO’s four betters: Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment and Better Life.

Among the panel of judges were FAO Deputy Director-General, Beth Bechdol; FAO Director of Food Systems and Food Safety, Corinna Hawkes; Executive Managing Director of XTC, Victoria Slivkoff; Chief Scalability, Knowledge and Impact IDB Lab, Marcelo Cabrol; and Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, Nicolas Autret.

Winners of each Four Betters category

These startup ventures epitomize the capabilities and leadership of young people transforming ideas into tangible solutions around the world. Harnessing technology, they have come up with sustainable innovations to tackle a priority aspect of agrifood systems which encompass the journey of food from farm to table and beyond.

Better Production: Zebra CropBank from Nigeria is building a post-harvest service platform for farmers to store and monetize produce. This accessible network of electronic warehouses can boost food and agriculture supply chains, allowing farmers to generate income, especially in local and remote areas of Africa.

Better Nutrition: A London-based and female co-founded company, Sustainable Planet’s green initiative is focused on growing water lentils, which are 45 percent protein, to help meet the global food and protein supply. This high protein produce will give opportunities to African and Middle Eastern regions to secure nutritious food, grown on non-arable land.

Better Environment: Based in the United States of America, Organicin Scientific is set to minimize the world’s reliance on chemical antibiotics in farming, which is known to contribute to environmental pollution, antimicrobial resistance and disrupt biodiversity. They are introducing bacteriocins, naturally occurring antimicrobial proteins, as a sustainable alternative instead.

Better Life: Stellapps is digitizing the dairy supply chain based in India, which is helping to improve milk productivity, quality and traceability using data acquisition and machine learning. They work with rural farmers, livestock and milk in India to help increase farmers’ profits and reduce carbon footprint along the supply chain.

The innovation of the year award winner was Zebra CropBank, the Nigerian startup enhancing the post-harvest supply chain in Africa.

Other finalists included CropScan (Kenya), GK AQUA (Malaysia), Koolboks (France) and WeavAir (Poland).

This World Food Forum annual awards event incentivizes young minds to present out-of-the-box solutions to help solve today’s issues. It connects innovators with influential industry leaders and experts who can help further bring their vision to life.