At the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in Dubai last month, a panel explored how technology could unlock regenerative agriculture opportunities across the Middle East and North Africa.
Christine Gould, founder and CEO of GIGA Futures highlighted that the unmet opportunity in combining solutions into a coordinated suite of solutions.
“The question I always ask is: who’s building the integrated tech stack?”
While many agtech solutions are addressing single challenges such as yield improvement or water-use efficiency, greater value can be created by combining these interventions.
“We have so many compelling solutions right at our fingertips that represent single point interventions… but if you start to combine and integrate these solutions, you create outsized impact. For example, when you look at genetics as well as soil amendments, regenerative practices, harvesting equipment… Suddenly you have a much more positive outcome on the environment or yield," she said.
Food 3.0: The next level
By operating in silos, agtech players risk underdelivering on their potential to drive the next stage of sustainable and productive food systems. Gould described this next phase as the Food 3.0 paradigm.
“Food 1.0 was the early days of agriculture: very sustainable, but not very productive. Then came the Industrial Revolution and Food 2.0, which brought productivity at the cost of sustainability. Now, with Food 3.0, we have the opportunity to eliminate those trade-offs and create a food system that is sustainable, productive, delicious, joyful, and profitable—delivering high-quality, nutrient-dense foods.”
This future of food would reflect a seamless integration of tradition with technology, and of scientific knowledge with accumulated wisdom.
“We have so much knowledge in the heads of our world’s farmers and in the local knowledge you know that has been around here in the region for hundreds of years, and when you combine that with homegrown innovation and not just imported technology, you can actually unlock limitless potential,” said Gould.
Drawing on her own experience working in the MENA region through the Goumbook MENA Regenerative Agriculture Initiative, Gould has observed world-class technologies being developed to address the real needs and conditions of agriculture in the region.
“There are solutions being developed by the regional players for the regional players, and that’s an exciting frontier to tap into for this Food 3.0 potential to be unleashed.”
Gould also highlighted the importance of building entrepreneurial capability alongside scientific research, which she has observed in MENA.
“What you’re doing uniquely is like getting researchers equipped with entrepreneurial skills. And then not only do you bring in local mentors who understand the funding landscape in MENA, but people like me who have the global perspective.”
She said this approach would help accelerate impact and support the development of investable business models without importing technology wholesale from abroad.
“We can point to solutions that resemble successful startups in other markets… and highlight lessons from their business models. This helps accelerate the ability of local innovators to create impact and develop investable businesses, not by importing technology from elsewhere, but by applying global best practices while keeping the solutions homegrown. I think that creates a truly special global–local ecosystem that we should continue to nurture.”
