Advancing Food Security: Technological Breakthroughs and Their Impact

Food Security is a pressing issue that affects every one of us. It’s also driving technological innovation and some of the most exciting advances of our generation. Let’s look at the issues behind world hunger, and focus on four companies that are delivering game-changing solutions in the mission to feed the world! 

Most people in the developed world barely considered the issue of food security until a few years ago. There was an abundance of affordable food on our supermarket shelves and it was possible to eat well on an average salary. A sudden constellation of global events shattered our complacency about food security and food supply chains, forcing us to reevaluate the actual resilience and reliability of the global food production system.

The combination of supply chain disruption from the COVID-19 lockdowns, the Ukraine War and commodity crisis, and spiraling food costs due to inflation forced many consumers in the US and EU to cut back hard on food spending. But for billions of people around the world, genuine food insecurity, hunger, and childhood malnutrition are brutal daily realities.

The world population is set to exceed 10 billion this century. At a time when we urgently need to feed more people, we’re facing the combined challenges of climate change and extreme weather events, increased desertification, rising sea levels, and the erosion of agricultural land. There is also a drift from the land through urbanization, expanding dependence on a shrinking agricultural sector.

Advancing food security has never been more important. Not only do we have a straightforward humanitarian obligation to eliminate hunger, but basic food security is the foundation of stable societies. In a globalized economy, our collective future depends on our ability to feed the world.

Some of the world’s most dynamic companies are pioneering new technologies to transform agriculture and the food supply chain. Their rapid innovation is driving a new agricultural revolution and generating considerable interest among investors. The agricultural and food production sectors have traditionally offered slow but (generally) consistent returns on investment, but the agtech sector will potentially perform on an entirely different level.

4 Companies Leading the Way

These four companies below are leaders in very different fields. What they have in common is that they are advancing food security through technological innovation. All four corporations offer valuable insight into a growth market.

1. ICL Group: Pioneering Sustainable Fertilization
   ICL is a leading global specialty minerals company and one of the largest fertilizer manufacturers in the world. The company’s 2023 ESG report states that ICL produced over 60 million tons of fertilizer, helping to feed more than 400 million people. This is an astonishing contribution to global food security by a single company and ICL’s expertise in fertilizers is world class. The company has pioneered environmentally friendly controlled-release fertilizers that allow precision agriculture based on sustainable practices. ICL’s high tech Amfert plant even manufactures fertilizers from recycled phosphates.

   ICL is active across the food production spectrum with a range of advanced phosphates that improve the longevity, taste, and texture of a variety of essential food products. The company also drives innovation through strategic partnerships with startups and initiatives with academia. ICL is channeling its impressive research and development resources towards the wider goals of advancing food security and empowering farmers with technological solutions to improve crop yields and reduce operating costs. ICL products like its controlled-release fertilizers and BIOZ biostimulants are designed to reduce negative environmental impacts and promote sustainability.

2. BrioAgro: Revolutionizing Water Management in Agriculture
   Successful agriculture depends not only on an adequate supply of water, but on irrigation systems that deliver the right amount of water. Overwatering will devastate a crop (and damage soil health) as readily as a drought. In many environments, water is an expensive resource that directly affects planting strategies and the price of food. BrioAgro is a Spanish company that developed AQUA, an automatic irrigation system for vineyards and greenhouses. The system uses ViTA 7 ground sensors in conjunction with artificial intelligence to factor in real-time crop, soil, and meteorology data. AQUA users can control autonomous irrigation via a simple smartphone app.

   AQUA isn’t just saving users valuable water, it can reduce expenditure on electricity and fertilizers and improve both crop yields and the actual quality of harvested crops. Crucially, farmers don’t have to visit their plots to control crop irrigation. The app makes it easy to work remotely, optimizing workflows and reducing labor requirements. BrioAgro technology also alerts users to potentially catastrophic incidents like burst pipes, system failures, or the presence of pests. Although developed for vineyards and greenhouses, BrioAgro smart irrigation is ideal for diverse crops including tomatoes, nuts, citrus fruits, and olive trees.

3. Inari: Advancing Crop Genetics for Greater Yield
   Inari is a leading biotechnology firm whose goal is to unlock the full potential of seed and produce robust and resilient crops that deliver optimal yields under a range of growing conditions. Inari is at the forefront of multiplex gene editing and is providing farmers with plants that are adapted to withstand harsh conditions such as drought, pests, and diseases. Inari’s proprietary SEEDesign™ platform uses predictive design and machine learning to allow multiple edits across multiple genes, creating a design capacity that was inconceivable a generation ago. Patented PRIDE™ technology allows engineers to work with a plant’s existing DNA, creating modifications that are similar to traditional breeding methods – but vastly more sophisticated and efficient.

   What Inari technology means at field level is a choice of seeds that are purpose designed for local growing conditions. This can translate into up to 20% higher crop yields, a 40% reduction in irrigation requirements, and vastly improved nitrogen absorption. Farmers and agronomists can produce a greater volume of high quality crops, on smaller plots of land, and with less water. There are currently 500 million acres of agricultural land devoted to staple crops in the Americas alone. The potential for Inari technology to transform and optimize crop farming is enormous.

4. Deere & Co: Implementing AI and Robotics in Farming
   The iconic American John Deere brand is still a market leader when it comes to robust and dependable agricultural vehicles, but Deere is also pioneering advanced AI and robotics solutions for precision farming. After more than two decades of research, Deere is launching a breakthrough technology in the form of a fully autonomous tractor. The new intelligent vehicle is built around proven technologies like StarFire™ receiver, AutoTrac™ Turn Automation, and John Deere Operations Center™. It also features 360° cameras, a high-speed processor, and a super-fast AI driven neural network. The tractor can work day and night and perform all tillage tasks that a conventional tractor with a human driver can perform.

   John Deere is also deeply involved in harnessing space technology and data analytics to allow farmers improved data-based decision making. Satellite imagery and robotic sensors can monitor crops, check soil moisture, nutrient levels, alert grows to pests and predation, and vastly simplify the daily management of agricultural enterprises, ranging from remotely managed plots to major plantations.

Advancing Food Security for a Sustainable Future 

I highlighted four companies of various sizes, drawn from across the spectrum of agronomy, farming, and food production. Each of these companies plays a pivotal role in its own field and is directly contributing to improved food security.

The exciting new technologies that are behind the agtech innovation are deeply interconnected. It’s the ability of researchers to combine AI with robotic sensors and cameras, or to extrapolate information from big data on cloud servers and channel it to a specific purpose, that is enabling such rapid advances in multiplex genetic editing, autonomous water management, precision nutritional solutions and smart robotics in agriculture.

These four companies are helping to secure food security. The opportunities for investors who take the time to research this growth market are potentially considerable. Agtech has all the dynamic energy of its high tech counterpart, but is embedded in a traditionally stable sector.

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