Africa Delegation Seeks Israeli Startups To Help Farmers Boost Crops

This article was first published by The Times of Israel and is re-posted with permission.

A four-person delegation from Africa, members of an organization that is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, visited Israel [this month] to see how agricultural technologies developed in the Startup Nation can help farmers in Africa.

Led by Agnes Kalibata, the president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the group was hosted by the non-profit organization Start-Up Nation Central and met with representatives from Israel’s tech industry and government officials.

The idea, said Kalibata in a phone interview with The Times of Israel, is to pinpoint local agricultural technologies that are “pertinent to the challenges we see in Africa.”

AGRA, founded in 2006, aims to reduce poverty and hunger in Africa by investing in agriculture. The organization works across the continent with millions of smallholder farmers — who make up 70 percent of Africa’s population — to boost their farm productivity and incomes.

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These farmers, who produce most of the continent’s food, struggle with unproductive soil, unreliable water supplies and low-quality seeds, AGRA’s website says. The organization, which is also backed by the World Food Program, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Canadian, German and UK governments, has already supported more than 400 projects, including ventures to develop and deliver better seeds, increase farm yields, improve soil fertility, upgrade storage facilities, expand access to credit and improve market information systems.

In Israel, AGRA wants to identify not just technologies that can be implemented on the ground but also people who will be able to understand the challenges ahead and develop products that are tailored to these needs, explained Kalibata.

“We are looking to support products that work for the community of farmers that have a potential to scale up,” she said.

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