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ZeaKal Board Advisor Commentary: “AgTech Start-Ups Key to the Next Wave of Agricultural Innovation”
Agriculture plays one of the most critical roles in the health and well-being of our people and planet. Throughout history, humanity has continuously fought against issues of poverty and, with it, the challenges of famine and malnutrition. Each time, innovation in agriculture has risen to face these trials and lift the human condition.
Agriculture plays one of the most critical roles in the health and well-being of our people and planet. Throughout history, humanity has continuously fought against issues of poverty and, with it, the challenges of famine and malnutrition. Each time, innovation in agriculture has risen to face these trials and lift the human condition. In fact, many of the technologies we enjoy today, would not have been possible without advancements in agriculture freeing up human capital. One could argue, that agricultural innovation is the root of human technological progress. With the recent challenges to agriculture - floods, trade wars, surplus commodities and poor farmer economics - I have been reflecting on where innovation in agriculture needs to go and more importantly from where it will originate from.
AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION: A BRIEF HISTORY
During my eighteen-year tenure as President of DuPont Pioneer and Head of International Operations, I witnessed incredible scientific advancements made to help farmers increase the productivity of each acre. During much of the 1900s, yields increased by more than 1.5% annually in corn through genetics, mechanization and agronomic practices. More recently improvements in productivity accelerated as we further optimized genetics, invented new traits, developed trait stacks and added dual trait modes of action. The combination of these innovations improved yields, increased stress resistance and introduced different herbicide tolerance and insect control products across several of the major crops. The solutions were elegant and addressed the critical pain points farmers around the world faced every season. Combined, these technologies helped farmers deliver the volume of food and feed the world needed. Farm operations expanded across North America and Brazil, and farmers in Asia and Africa adopted modern practices and gained greater access to new technologies. This innovation renaissance over the past three decades could be attributed to the leadership of a few companies including DuPont Pioneer (now Corteva), Monsanto (now Bayer) and others.
However, around 2014 things started to change. Supplies of commodities grew. Global regulatory systems became unpredictable. Environmental pressures intensified. Consumer preferences shifted. The science required to meet changing demands became not only more complex and lengthier, but also much more expensive. While I don’t believe that any of these headwinds will be the death knell of commodity agribusinesses, it is changing what the market is asking for from innovation. Instead of just yield, there is now demand for value in the form of better nutrition and even functionality. Farmers want new safer chemistries or biological solutions that can fill a shrinking toolbox of crop protection products. Furthermore, farmers want greater choices in crop alternatives that can be added to the rotation, but supported by toolsets that they have come to expect in major row crops like corn and soybeans.
“Instead of just yield, there is now demand for value in the form of better nutrition and even functionality.”
THE ROLE OF START-UPS IN THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION
As we enter this decade, I am convinced that the type of innovation the market is demanding will increasingly be served by the start-up community. While overall research spending across the large agricultural companies has remained relatively stable, it is now more focused and narrower among the majors due to complexity, unpredictability and increasing costs. To create the type of disruptive technologies that the world needs, innovation needs to be nimbler, more diverse, less constrained and responsive to changing trends. I see the emphasis on “Open Innovation” from the large companies as further validation that they also believe that the next generation of innovation will come externally from start-ups.
In the past eight years, the agtech sector has quickly grown, and venture capitalists, agribusinesses and farmers alike have taken notice. According to Finistere Ventures, since 2012 a record $25 billion has been invested into the agrifood sector, with upstream startups achieving a nearly 18% year-over-year increase in investment in 2019. Within this pool of investment, most science and research around “output traits”, greener chemistry, better nutrition and improved sustainability resided within the start-up community. These entrepreneurs are tackling incredibly complex challenges like improving grain composition and nutrition, providing alternatives to synthetic chemistry and responding to environmental concerns, to name a few. They are also from the outset telling a story that seeks to engage the consumer – something that our industry has been woefully lacking.
“To create the type of disruptive technologies that the world needs, innovation needs to be nimbler, more diverse, less constrained and responsive to changing trends.”
Despite all this innovation, more must be done as an industry to ensure that these technologies translate into in-market products that will benefit the world. During the previous era of innovate-and-deliver – the two decades of the 1990s and 2000s - the industry’s farmer-focused solutions did not adequately involve the supply chain and consumers. Our business model did not fully reflect or understand their needs. The result was an economy driven by volume and not value. The disconnect with consumers also further distanced the farm from the fork, which created a vacuum that allowed misinformation to seep in.
For this next generation of technology to succeed, we must not only commit to science innovation but also innovate the way technology engages with the supply chain and consumers. We must focus on how we can capture and share value creation from what the market is dictating at the dinner table back to the farmers who are growing it in the field. We must boldly encourage, support and invest in the entrepreneurs driving the future of agtech innovation. As I personally transition from leading one of the world’s top plant genetics companies to now mentoring breakthrough startups such as ZeaKal, I look forward to remaining at the cutting edge of agtech innovation and seeing how it will shape the world in the years to come.
Chicago Council on Global Affairs Expert Commentary: “Even Those with Full Plates Need Food Security”
In advance of the Global Agriculture Development Initative's Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, the Initiative solicited commentary by leading global food security and international development experts to provide analysis on what critical steps countries must take to help reduce global hunger and alleviate poverty worldwide. This piece originally appeared on Huffington Post's Web site.
Paul E. Schickler is president of Pioneer Hi-Bred. He was named vice president, director, Latin America Operations for Pioneer in 1999, with Africa added in 2002. In October 2003, responsibility for the remaining international businesses was added, and he was named vice president, International Operations. In November 2007, he was named Pioneer president.
In the United States, it's easy to take our food supply for granted. Less than one percent of the U.S. population claims farming as an occupation, yet there is no national shortage. To the contrary, agricultural exports are strong. From the dining room of most U.S. consumers, the notion of "food security" -- an adequate supply of daily food for a growing population -- may seem irrelevant.
And yet, food security is the cornerstone to stable societies. As noted by the late Norman Borlaug, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Father of the Green Revolution: "You can't build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery." And that's a growing challenge with global population -- and demand for food -- expected to double by 2050.
Food security is national security. Better farming can change the game -- addressing multiple global issues that include hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, poor nutrition and even civil unrest.
That's why it is so important that on Thursday, the Obama administration is announcing its new food security plan -- outlining the best ways to maximize the effectiveness of the $22 billion that the U.S. government and other G8 countries pledged at the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy, in July 2009 to "increase food production, improve access to food and empower smallholder farmers to gain access to enhanced inputs, technologies, credit and markets." The immediate objective is to reach the first Millenium Development Goal of cutting global hunger and poverty in half by 2015. The plan will channel investment to potentially 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Western Hemisphere to support food security policies that those countries have crafted themselves.
The need for international action is obvious. Members of these developing countries -- Kenya, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Guatemala, and Haiti for example -- face challenges that didn't exist 25 years ago. Besides, in the eternal race to feed a growing population, poor countries now are likely to shoulder the brunt of steadily rising food prices due to demand from a rising global middle class.
Rising food prices have led to civil unrest and increased protests: Already in the last five years, the world has seen more food protests across multiple countries than it did in the previous 30. The growing middle class in markets such as China and India is likely to continue driving up demand for improved diets -- and with it, the price of grain that poorer consumers depend on for their daily bread and other basics. Add to that the specter of global warming -- with drought, disease, and insect infestation -- and the prospect of continued food price increases will be part of a distasteful menu for a long time to come.
What is the answer to this challenge? Collectively, we must double agricultural production by 2050. With limited new farmland to bring under cultivation, the focus is on increasing the yield and nutritional impact produced by every existing farm acre.
To get there, investment in agricultural innovation is essential. Public-private partnerships between companies, NGOs, governments, and academic researchers are critical to leveraging the $22 billion pledged at L'Aquila. This is where U.S. companies can make a difference, putting their expertise in innovation and investment in research to work for food security.
Many public-private partnerships already are under way. For example, DuPont, is teaming up with the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Philippines to find hybrids to boost rice yield growth rates which have fallen below one percent since 2000. If not reversed soon, this trend will lead to tight supply and higher prices.
In Kenya, we are working with the United States Agency for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to improve maize harvests for African farmers by 30 percent to 50 percent with new varieties that need less fertilizer.
Such cooperative efforts - in concert with a strong, holistic agricultural policy - can pay huge dividends -- a one percent improvement in agriculture GDP reduces poverty rates by roughly one percent. Building food security around the world will help all of our globe's populations.
This is why, though you and I may go to bed with a full stomach, we all need to be thinking about global food security.