Digital Agriculture Innovation Ecosystems - Summary Report

Agriculture and Food Global Practice

Data-Driven & Digital Agriculture Team

May 2021

This report is part of the World Bank's Agriculture and Food Global Practice activities and builds on the work carried out by the Data-Driven and Digital Agriculture Team (DDAT) on digital agriculture worldwide. The World Bank's DDAT has decided to look into technological, organizational, and institutional innovations supporting the development of a thriving agro-food tech ecosystem in 6 countries: Australia, Chile, France, Israel, the Netherlands, and South Korea. Through case studies focusing on each country, this collective work will constitute a tool for reflection and orientation of strategic decisions for the actors of digital agriculture innovation ecosystems worldwide.

https://olc.worldbank.org/content/transforming-agriculture-and-food-systems-through-data-driven-digital-agriculture-learning-0?deliveryName=DM153860

Last Day to Enroll:  Oct 08, 2022

Digital and data-driven innovations, applications, and platforms are promising to overcome long-standing market and policy failures and accelerate the transformation of the agriculture and food system. In many countries, digital and data-driven innovations and applications in agriculture and food systems emerge and deploy. They range from full-fledge digital ecosystem building to more focused components such as, digital advisory and E-extension, Big Data for e-market platform, E-voucher, Digitalization of value chain data, farmers digital registry, fintech, weather advisory, digital services that increase farmers' access IoT based mechanization, solar-powered irrigation, precision agriculture, and food safety and traceability. They help to increase farm efficiency, support more equitable access to markets across the value chain and improve environmental sustainability in the agrifood sector. Digital technologies are becoming a prominent tool within The World Bank operations, with examples of innovations and applications in all aspects of agriculture and the food value chain. Currently, The World Bank has 53 lending investment projects in 36 countries with 1.15 billion USD investments in Data and Digital Components related to agriculture and food systems, influencing an investment of about 10.7 billion USD.

In this context, it is critical that we build awareness and share knowledge across World Bank staff, interested global audience, and policymakers about how data-driven and digital technologies can be a tool to support a range of operations, but also about the new type of operations needed to support the development of a thriving digital ecosystem for the agriculture and food sectors.

This virtual knowledge exchange is intended to provide informative examples and discussion regarding innovative solutions, business models, and approaches in Data-driven Digital Agriculture. The information presented and examples highlighted are aimed to help policymakers and practitioners consider how they can assess Agriculture and Food Systems project options and adopt decisions tailored to their country’s circumstances and needs.

Objectives of the event 

• Understand the importance of leveraging Digital Agriculture innovations and new business models for efficiency, equity, and environmental sustainability (EEE) in Agriculture and Food Systems.
• Acquire skills to design and implement projects with Data-driven Digital Agriculture components.
• Develop up-to-date knowledge on the key Data-driven Digital Agriculture technology options.
• Assess policy and investment options available for building a Data-driven Digital Agriculture ecosystem.

https://olc.worldbank.org/content/transforming-agriculture-and-food-systems-through-data-driven-digital-agriculture-learning-0 

Last Day to Enroll:  Oct 08, 2022

Digital and data-driven innovations, applications, and platforms are promising to overcome long-standing market and policy failures and accelerate the transformation of the agriculture and food system. In many countries, digital and data-driven innovations and applications in agriculture and food systems emerge and deploy. They range from full-fledge digital ecosystem building to more focused components such as, digital advisory and E-extension, Big Data for e-market platform, E-voucher, Digitalization of value chain data, farmers digital registry, fintech, weather advisory, digital services that increase farmers' access IoT based mechanization, solar-powered irrigation, precision agriculture, and food safety and traceability. They help to increase farm efficiency, support more equitable access to markets across the value chain and improve environmental sustainability in the agrifood sector. Digital technologies are becoming a prominent tool within The World Bank operations, with examples of innovations and applications in all aspects of agriculture and the food value chain. Currently, The World Bank has 53 lending investment projects in 36 countries with 1.15 billion USD investments in Data and Digital Components related to agriculture and food systems, influencing an investment of about 10.7 billion USD.

In this context, it is critical that we build awareness and share knowledge across World Bank staff, interested global audience, and policymakers about how data-driven and digital technologies can be a tool to support a range of operations, but also about the new type of operations needed to support the development of a thriving digital ecosystem for the agriculture and food sectors.

This virtual knowledge exchange is intended to provide informative examples and discussion regarding innovative solutions, business models, and approaches in Data-driven Digital Agriculture. The information presented and examples highlighted are aimed to help policymakers and practitioners consider how they can assess Agriculture and Food Systems project options and adopt decisions tailored to their country’s circumstances and needs.

Objectives of the event 

• Understand the importance of leveraging Digital Agriculture innovations and new business models for efficiency, equity, and environmental sustainability (EEE) in Agriculture and Food Systems.
• Acquire skills to design and implement projects with Data-driven Digital Agriculture components.
• Develop up-to-date knowledge on the key Data-driven Digital Agriculture technology options.
• Assess policy and investment options available for building a Data-driven Digital Agriculture ecosystem.

Meeting link: https://worldbankgroup.webex.com/worldbankgroup/j.php?MTID=m4aba6612691703ebcd2ca3f82ffd4d2a

Meeting number:    2316 511 0035  Password:       8pcHfZXVK52 

The Data-Driven and Digital Agriculture Team has launched a new, monthly FoodTech Innovation Webinar Series! FoodTech is the intersection of agriculture, food, and technology along the value-chain from harvest, storage, processing to distribution and retail. FoodTech has promising potential to facilitate the transition of agri-food systems to meet both consumers' demands and sustainable development goals. A diverse range of speakers and discussants from industry, academia, and policy will analyze the various challenges and opportunities in the ecosystem. The second webinar in the series provides a deep dive into the rapid transformation of the “hidden middle” of food systems particularly in LMICs led by SMEs (Michigan State University). Additionally, there will be discussions on alternative and plant-based proteins across the FoodTech and nutrition sector while evaluating and assessing the potential to scale innovations along the value-chain and from one region to another. Demand for human food and animal feed has steadily increased, particularly in developing countries. Alternative protein and plant-based meat alternatives are projected to gain a significant share in global diets and have potential to reduce carbon emission and resource use. The webinar provides an opportunity to highlight alternative protein and food processing companies (Veggie Victory and Blend Hub) and discuss challenges and opportunities in developing alternative protein-based products and business development in emerging markets. 

Michigan State University and the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics is addressing societal policy questions and solving practical problems for producers, consumers, and the environment in Michigan and around the world. 
Veggie Victory is Nigeria’s first plant-based food tech company bringing people a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle through plant-based meats and meals. Since 2013, Veggie Victory has been surprising Lagosians with veganized Nigerian culinary delicacies and expanding from a restaurant to retail level.
Blend Hub is a platform for food production services. It helps food companies, brands, and raw material providers in the development and launching of their products. Originating from Spain, they now have operations in India, Colombia and Mexico. 

Meeting link: https://worldbankgroup.webex.com/worldbankgroup/j.php?MTID=m4aba6612691703ebcd2ca3f82ffd4d2a

Meeting number: 2316 026 5256     Password:   9T33me3hJtX

The Data-Driven and Digital Agriculture Team has launched a new, monthly FoodTech Innovation Webinar Series! FoodTech is the intersection of agriculture, food, and technology along the value-chain from harvest, storage, processing to distribution and retail. FoodTech has promising potential to facilitate the transition of agri-food systems to meet both consumers' demands and sustainable development goals. A diverse range of speakers and discussants from industry, academia, and policy will analyze the various challenges and opportunities in the ecosystem. The second webinar in the series provides a deep dive into the rapid transformation of the “hidden middle” of food systems particularly in LMICs led by SMEs (Michigan State University). Additionally, there will be discussions on alternative and plant-based proteins across the FoodTech and nutrition sector while evaluating and assessing the potential to scale innovations along the value-chain and from one region to another. Demand for human food and animal feed has steadily increased, particularly in developing countries. Alternative protein and plant-based meat alternatives are projected to gain a significant share in global diets and have potential to reduce carbon emission and resource use. The webinar provides an opportunity to highlight alternative protein and food processing companies (Veggie Victory and Blend Hub) and discuss challenges and opportunities in developing alternative protein-based products and business development in emerging markets. 

Michigan State University and the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics is addressing societal policy questions and solving practical problems for producers, consumers, and the environment in Michigan and around the world. 
Veggie Victory is Nigeria’s first plant-based food tech company bringing people a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle through plant-based meats and meals. Since 2013, Veggie Victory has been surprising Lagosians with veganized Nigerian culinary delicacies and expanding from a restaurant to retail level.
Blend Hub is a platform for food production services. It helps food companies, brands, and raw material providers in the development and launching of their products. Originating from Spain, they now have operations in India, Colombia and Mexico. 

Meeting link:  https://worldbankgroup.webex.com/worldbankgroup/j.php?MTID=mf74fd914eac15eb73a91fa2d5d12383b

Meeting number:2307 918 2107      Password: UNvCgpVu453

In 2021, agriculture contributed 22.35% of Nigerian GDP, and 70% of the population was involved mainly in subsistence-level farming. In the agriculture sector, productivity challenges persist from poor land tenure systems, low levels of irrigation in agriculture, and land degradation. Farmers also lack access and affordability to technology and inputs, experience high production costs, limited financing, high post-harvest losses, and poor access to markets. Despite the Agriculture Promotion Policy, Nigeria-Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Programme, Presidential Economic Diversification Initiative, and Economic and Export Promotion Incentives, between 2016 and 2019, Nigeria's cumulative agricultural imports were four times higher (N3.35 trillion) than the agricultural exports (N803 billion).  

Nigeria has a thriving digital agriculture Agtech ecosystem. We are featuring two Agtech innovators in this webinar, Babban Gona and AFEX.   They demonstrate the powerful proximity of working with farmers, ensuring their access to capital, and working closely with farmers to trade via a commodity platform.

Babban Gona's unique technology platform enables their vision of creating millions of jobs for youth and making farming more profitable. The model also deals with the root causes of violence and a constructive route to strong economic growth, poverty alleviation, and reduced migration of the unemployed. Babban Gona is currently the largest maize-producing entity in West Africa. Over ten years, they have enabled smallholder members to increase their yields sustainably, attain net incomes of more than double the national average, and maintain repayment rates of over 99% on their loans. Babban Gona is currently growing very rapidly. In 2020, through leveraging our proprietary technology, they will present how they have doubled in size, serving roughly 40,000 smallholders to farm 80,000 acres. By 2021, they worked with 86,000 farmers cultivating 140,000 acres across Nigeria. The webinar will illustrate this critical work, proximal to both youth and farming, and feature the core of the business with climate-smart agriculture and climate change mitigation initiatives and building farmers' resilience to climate change-related shocks. Through their Women's Economic Development Initiative (WEDI), they support rural women to establish businesses and access education, training, financing, and inputs. 

AFEX harnesses Africa's commodities and talent to build shared wealth and prosperity. The AFEX infrastructure and platform investments work to unlock capital to power a trust-based economy in Africa's commodities markets. AFEX will present the development and deployment of 
a viable commodities exchange model for the West African market and illustrate their approach to impact one million producers, providing services in productivity and value capture and access to finance and markets. By deploying an efficient market system, AFEX expects to facilitate trade with Africa worth over USD500 million in the next five years. AFEX's vision is to be the reference point for commodities in Africa. To achieve this goal, AFEX looks to introduce products that de-risk the sector, drive financial inclusion for rural communities, develop technology for data collection and market access, and enable capital deployment.

In 2021, agriculture contributed 22.35% of Nigerian GDP, and 70% of the population was involved mainly in subsistence-level farming. In the agriculture sector, productivity challenges persist from poor land tenure systems, low levels of irrigation in agriculture, and land degradation. Farmers also lack access and affordability to technology and inputs, experience high production costs, limited financing, high post-harvest losses, and poor access to markets. Despite the Agriculture Promotion Policy, Nigeria-Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Programme, Presidential Economic Diversification Initiative, and Economic and Export Promotion Incentives, between 2016 and 2019, Nigeria's cumulative agricultural imports were four times higher (N3.35 trillion) than the agricultural exports (N803 billion).  

Nigeria has a thriving digital agriculture Agtech ecosystem. We are featuring two Agtech innovators in this webinar, Babban Gona and AFEX.   They demonstrate the powerful proximity of working with farmers, ensuring their access to capital, and working closely with farmers to trade via a commodity platform.

Babban Gona's unique technology platform enables their vision of creating millions of jobs for youth and making farming more profitable. The model also deals with the root causes of violence and a constructive route to strong economic growth, poverty alleviation, and reduced migration of the unemployed. Babban Gona is currently the largest maize-producing entity in West Africa. Over ten years, they have enabled smallholder members to increase their yields sustainably, attain net incomes of more than double the national average, and maintain repayment rates of over 99% on their loans. Babban Gona is currently growing very rapidly. In 2020, through leveraging our proprietary technology, they will present how they have doubled in size, serving roughly 40,000 smallholders to farm 80,000 acres. By 2021, they worked with 86,000 farmers cultivating 140,000 acres across Nigeria. The webinar will illustrate this critical work, proximal to both youth and farming, and feature the core of the business with climate-smart agriculture and climate change mitigation initiatives and building farmers' resilience to climate change-related shocks. Through their Women's Economic Development Initiative (WEDI), they support rural women to establish businesses and access education, training, financing, and inputs. 

AFEX harnesses Africa's commodities and talent to build shared wealth and prosperity. The AFEX infrastructure and platform investments work to unlock capital to power a trust-based economy in Africa's commodities markets. AFEX will present the development and deployment of 
a viable commodities exchange model for the West African market and illustrate their approach to impact one million producers, providing services in productivity and value capture and access to finance and markets. By deploying an efficient market system, AFEX expects to facilitate trade with Africa worth over USD500 million in the next five years. AFEX's vision is to be the reference point for commodities in Africa. To achieve this goal, AFEX looks to introduce products that de-risk the sector, drive financial inclusion for rural communities, develop technology for data collection and market access, and enable capital deployment.

Meeting link:  https://worldbankgroup.webex.com/worldbankgroup/j.php?MTID=mf74fd914eac15eb73a91fa2d5d12383b

Meeting number:2307 918 2107      Password: UNvCgpVu453 

In 2021, agriculture contributed 22.35% of Nigerian GDP, and 70% of the population was involved mainly in subsistence-level farming. In the agriculture sector, productivity challenges persist from poor land tenure systems, low levels of irrigation in agriculture, and land degradation. Farmers also lack access and affordability to technology and inputs, experience high production costs, limited financing, high post-harvest losses, and poor access to markets. Despite the Agriculture Promotion Policy, Nigeria-Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Programme, Presidential Economic Diversification Initiative, and Economic and Export Promotion Incentives, between 2016 and 2019, Nigeria's cumulative agricultural imports were four times higher (N3.35 trillion) than the agricultural exports (N803 billion).  

Nigeria has a thriving digital agriculture Agtech ecosystem. We are featuring two Agtech innovators in this webinar, Babban Gona and AFEX.   They demonstrate the powerful proximity of working with farmers, ensuring their access to capital, and working closely with farmers to trade via a commodity platform.

Babban Gona's unique technology platform enables their vision of creating millions of jobs for youth and making farming more profitable. The model also deals with the root causes of violence and a constructive route to strong economic growth, poverty alleviation, and reduced migration of the unemployed. Babban Gona is currently the largest maize-producing entity in West Africa. Over ten years, they have enabled smallholder members to increase their yields sustainably, attain net incomes of more than double the national average, and maintain repayment rates of over 99% on their loans. Babban Gona is currently growing very rapidly. In 2020, through leveraging our proprietary technology, they will present how they have doubled in size, serving roughly 40,000 smallholders to farm 80,000 acres. By 2021, they worked with 86,000 farmers cultivating 140,000 acres across Nigeria. The webinar will illustrate this critical work, proximal to both youth and farming, and feature the core of the business with climate-smart agriculture and climate change mitigation initiatives and building farmers' resilience to climate change-related shocks. Through their Women's Economic Development Initiative (WEDI), they support rural women to establish businesses and access education, training, financing, and inputs. 

AFEX harnesses Africa's commodities and talent to build shared wealth and prosperity. The AFEX infrastructure and platform investments work to unlock capital to power a trust-based economy in Africa's commodities markets. AFEX will present the development and deployment of 
a viable commodities exchange model for the West African market and illustrate their approach to impact one million producers, providing services in productivity and value capture and access to finance and markets. By deploying an efficient market system, AFEX expects to facilitate trade with Africa worth over USD500 million in the next five years. AFEX's vision is to be the reference point for commodities in Africa. To achieve this goal, AFEX looks to introduce products that de-risk the sector, drive financial inclusion for rural communities, develop technology for data collection and market access, and enable capital deployment.

Meeting link:  https://worldbankgroup.webex.com/worldbankgroup/j.php?MTID=mf74fd914eac15eb73a91fa2d5d12383b

Meeting number:2307 918 2107      Password: UNvCgpVu453 

In 2021, agriculture contributed 22.35% of Nigerian GDP, and 70% of the population was involved mainly in subsistence-level farming. In the agriculture sector, productivity challenges persist from poor land tenure systems, low levels of irrigation in agriculture, and land degradation. Farmers also lack access and affordability to technology and inputs, experience high production costs, limited financing, high post-harvest losses, and poor access to markets. Despite the Agriculture Promotion Policy, Nigeria-Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Programme, Presidential Economic Diversification Initiative, and Economic and Export Promotion Incentives, between 2016 and 2019, Nigeria's cumulative agricultural imports were four times higher (N3.35 trillion) than the agricultural exports (N803 billion).  

Nigeria has a thriving digital agriculture Agtech ecosystem. We are featuring two Agtech innovators in this webinar, Babban Gona and AFEX.   They demonstrate the powerful proximity of working with farmers, ensuring their access to capital, and working closely with farmers to trade via a commodity platform.

Babban Gona's unique technology platform enables their vision of creating millions of jobs for youth and making farming more profitable. The model also deals with the root causes of violence and a constructive route to strong economic growth, poverty alleviation, and reduced migration of the unemployed. Babban Gona is currently the largest maize-producing entity in West Africa. Over ten years, they have enabled smallholder members to increase their yields sustainably, attain net incomes of more than double the national average, and maintain repayment rates of over 99% on their loans. Babban Gona is currently growing very rapidly. In 2020, through leveraging our proprietary technology, they will present how they have doubled in size, serving roughly 40,000 smallholders to farm 80,000 acres. By 2021, they worked with 86,000 farmers cultivating 140,000 acres across Nigeria. The webinar will illustrate this critical work, proximal to both youth and farming, and feature the core of the business with climate-smart agriculture and climate change mitigation initiatives and building farmers' resilience to climate change-related shocks. Through their Women's Economic Development Initiative (WEDI), they support rural women to establish businesses and access education, training, financing, and inputs. 

AFEX harnesses Africa's commodities and talent to build shared wealth and prosperity. The AFEX infrastructure and platform investments work to unlock capital to power a trust-based economy in Africa's commodities markets. AFEX will present the development and deployment of 
a viable commodities exchange model for the West African market and illustrate their approach to impact one million producers, providing services in productivity and value capture and access to finance and markets. By deploying an efficient market system, AFEX expects to facilitate trade with Africa worth over USD500 million in the next five years. AFEX's vision is to be the reference point for commodities in Africa. To achieve this goal, AFEX looks to introduce products that de-risk the sector, drive financial inclusion for rural communities, develop technology for data collection and market access, and enable capital deployment.

Meeting link: https://worldbankgroup.webex.com/worldbankgroup/j.php?MTID=me0d3b2f9d3efd5f6a8572c6556152fb8

Meeting number: 2300 557 6605   Password: tGUg5fwXU29

On May 20th, we will be celebrating World Bee Day. A dedicated day to celebrate and build awareness on the most effective and essential pollinator to our global agriculture. They are vital to the survival and well-being of a healthy and prosperous ecosystem. Bees pollinate 1 out of every three bites of food that we eat. While the volume of agricultural production dependent on insect pollination has boomed in the past 25 years, the natural wild "free" pollinators are declining. 

Ubees' technology disrupts traditional beekeeping using connected sensors and sustainable practices. Managing the health and the performance of the hives remotely enables us to anticipate the risk to the colonies' development and increase the precision of the pollination.

The "Bees for coffee" project emerged from Nespresso's initiative to promote resilience in coffee farming and Ubees' vision to save the bees thanks to technology, traditional beekeeping, and sustainable practices. The project aims to equip small Colombian coffee farmers with beehives and improve their income through technology and training while promoting environmentally friendly beekeeping practices. Our advanced monitoring and traceability technologies (IoT sensors) ensure accurate precision for bees and efficiency for customers.

The panel will be sharing an introduction to the current bee situation in the global context before sharing the key achievement behind the 'Bees for Coffee' project.
 

Meeting link: https://worldbankgroup.webex.com/worldbankgroup/j.php?MTID=me0d3b2f9d3efd5f6a8572c6556152fb8

Meeting number: 2300 557 6605   Password: tGUg5fwXU29

On May 20th, we will be celebrating World Bee Day. A dedicated day to celebrate and build awareness on the most effective and essential pollinator to our global agriculture. They are vital to the survival and well-being of a healthy and prosperous ecosystem. Bees pollinate 1 out of every three bites of food that we eat. While the volume of agricultural production dependent on insect pollination has boomed in the past 25 years, the natural wild "free" pollinators are declining. 

Ubees' technology disrupts traditional beekeeping using connected sensors and sustainable practices. Managing the health and the performance of the hives remotely enables us to anticipate the risk to the colonies' development and increase the precision of the pollination.

The "Bees for coffee" project emerged from Nespresso's initiative to promote resilience in coffee farming and Ubees' vision to save the bees thanks to technology, traditional beekeeping, and sustainable practices. The project aims to equip small Colombian coffee farmers with beehives and improve their income through technology and training while promoting environmentally friendly beekeeping practices. Our advanced monitoring and traceability technologies (IoT sensors) ensure accurate precision for bees and efficiency for customers.

The panel will be sharing an introduction to the current bee situation in the global context before sharing the key achievement behind the 'Bees for Coffee' project.