Technology

[ad_1] Last weekend, Marc Andreessen published his now-famous essay It’s Time To Build; a call to arms to innovators and investors to build a more resilient society. This is our acceptance to that call, and our pledge to do our part to build a better, more resilient food and agriculture system. The past month or […]

[ad_1] These are unprecedented times; if we had a dollar for every time we’ve heard that in recent weeks… But there might not be a better way to describe the situation we are in, especially as there’s so much uncertainty in the short, medium and long term for everyone on our planet. The agrifood industry […]

[ad_1] Happy Earth Day! As my colleague Jessica Pothering said in an earlier post today, you’d be forgiven for not knowing it was Earth Day today or feeling happy about it. I’m sure sustainability and climate change are far from many people’s minds right now as you grapple with a new normal that might involve […]

[ad_1] Editor’s Note: Emily Negrin is director of global communications & marketing for Geosys, the satellite imagery analytics business. For Earth Day, we asked her to provide an overview of how climate change has impacted agriculture industries all over the world using data from the company’s 2019 Climate & Crop Report. Once owned by Land […]

[ad_1] Facebook is investing ₹436 billion ($5.7 billion) in Reliance Jio, India’s largest mobile network operator, in a deal that will have significant implications for the country’s agrifood ecosystem. The US tech giant is buying a stake of 9.99% in Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of the Reliance Industries conglomerate that brings together Jio’s range of […]

[ad_1] One could be forgiven for forgetting that it is Earth Day. Or forgetting what day it is, full stop. While most of us are feeling wholly consumed by coronavirus news and disruptions, people in some corners of the world were already facing immediate, consuming and disruptive environmental incidents before the pandemic hit. Like many […]

[ad_1] Humanitarian aid NGO Mercy Corps is joining forces with a number of private-sector startups to provide a boost for Myanmar’s agriculture sector. Local agritech startup Village Link, tech-driven rice brand Golden Sunland, and fintech firm Daung Capital have launched a collaboration with Mercy Corps to offer farming contracts and services to smallholders in the […]

[ad_1] IBM is giving Indian farmers and agritech startups the chance to use its weather monitoring tools for free during the country’s strict Covid-19 lockdown. The US tech firm is offering a 30-day free trial of its Operations Dashboard – developed by its subsidiary, The Weather Company – to assist smallholders and supply chain-focused startups […]

[ad_1] Editor’s Note: Jeff Caldwell is content marketing manager at Lessing-Flynn, a marketing and advertising agency based in Des Moines, US. Previously, he was editor of Successful Farming and the High Plains Journal. The views expressed in this article are personal. “Normal” life as we know it has been severely disrupted as the novel coronavirus […]

[ad_1] Agribusiness giants Cargill and Agrocorp have completed a groundbreaking grain deal that provides a taster of how cross-border food commodity trading could become much faster and more frictionless in the future. Tapping into Hyperledger Fabric – an open-source blockchain technology – US-based Cargill was able to complete the sale of a consignment of wheat […]

[ad_1] Gaston Marquevich is thankful his fresh produce operation Generation Farms in Florida and Georgia has always sold into grocery stores. While he’s faced plenty of other complications relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, finding a client in demand has not been one of them. “Lots of growers that have focused on foodservice are having a […]

[ad_1] One of last year’s biggest tech investors in agrifood globally has warned of an eye-watering ¥2.6 trillion ($24.2 billion) annual loss on its startup bets. SoftBank said in a note to shareholders that it made an estimated loss of ¥1.8 trillion ($16.8 billion) last year on its Vision Fund – the $100 billion-plus investment […]

[ad_1] A tangible hint of food insecurity wafted through Kuwait several weeks back, when a cheap and common food item—onions—disappeared from grocery stores in the small Gulf country. With global supply chains disrupted by the coronavirus crisis, the Kuwaiti government sent trucks to buy and haul back 120,000 kilos of onions from nearby Yemen, a […]

[ad_1] The government of the Philippines is boosting a state-led agribusiness marketplace initiative with technology and private sector partnerships to help farmers and consumers during the Covid-19 crisis. The country’s Department of Agriculture (DA) originally launched the project alongside the Department of Interior & Local Government and state-owned enterprise Food Terminal Inc in September last […]

[ad_1] Editor’s Note: Joseph Byrum, a geneticist, is chief data scientist at Principal Financial Group and a regular contributor to AFN. Read more of his contributions here. The next harvest is becoming a matter of economic survival for some growers in uncertain times. With trade wars, pandemics and market plunges, farmers now more than ever need […]