Resilient food systems: partnerships, tech and policy - why TOPIAN could be a model to build on.
Simon Bradley
I help you create stellar brand equity by unlocking your consumers’ purpose. Brand Management | Strategic Communications and Partnerships | Experiential Marketing Engagement | Digital Transformation
Warning: this article is written using S.I. : Simon’s Intelligence and public information (referenced below)
Long-term global food security outlook remains volatile according to the World Bank and World Food Programme. Holistic thinking and emerging technologies including precision agriculture as well as blockchain play a vital role in managing the risks. But so too do enabling conditions: partnerships and policy.
That’s because resolving #foodsecurity is complex: just today Japan announced its lowest levels of rice stocks in decades due to poor yields and a booming tourist market with many more mouths to feed than normal. And that is not to mention the disastrous effects of near-term food security in some countries where malnutrition and starvation can be just days away without emergency intervention to save lives. That is a topic for its own article and requires systemic change across many sectors of economic and social activity.
Given its fundamental importance – we all need to eat and hopefully enjoy our food - there are numerous interesting solutions being developed to solve the evolving food security crisis. Worth a book or a podcast series no doubt. Meanwhile, the stories of Egypt and Saudi Arabia are particularly interesting – ranking 41st and 77th on the Global Food Security Index respectively. Their relevance is pointed: both countries have large young populations and are exposed to the risks of climate change impacting the sustainability of their food systems. Their approaches differ, fundamentally it would seem.
In Egypt, a government-led initiative, managed by the Egyptian army is greening vast tracts of the Western desert using groundwater and aquifers to nourish almost 17,000 sq km of farmland by 2030. This multi-billion dollar project reacts to severe food shortages around 2010, brining in scale aligned to the needs of this populous country (110m approximately). While there has been progress (3,800 sq km greened), the question arises, at what cost to future generations in terms of sustainable water management. These arid desert soils need much more nourishment than the soils of the Nile Valley where the water cycle returns irrigation to the river-catchment area. Perhaps there are other ways to stop desertification – itself a significant problem threatening 2 billion hectares of land worldwide according to United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) .
In Saudi Arabia, NEOM , a multi-faceted peta-project designed as public-private sector partnership model, is addressing food security in a different way. Through its spin-off TOPIAN , food security is being tackled as a key component in a broader goal to transform the domestic economy: Vision 2030. Since the early 2020’s TOPIAN has been building a solution from the ground-up, combining precision agriculture technologies such as circular crop watering systems with partnerships such as Pure Salmon and BlueNalu to scale up production, meeting consumer preferences for nutritious locally sourced food, as sustainably as possible. The number of partnerships may be dizzying to consider but they are coherent and cogent. Relevancy of goals and means is key critical to achieving collaborative success, leveraging expertise and proven solutions into new contexts to create added value for all stakeholders. And indeed, with TOPIAN more opportunities abound.
Arguably, both country projects offer transformative potential for their domestic economies, harnessing technology to deliver on the vision for food security. A key differentiator is how to harness technologies and partnerships to achieve transformative goals – perhaps a lesson for any project tackling any of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. At an executional level there are different approaches, for instance, to irrigation: precision watering systems optimise irrigation in TOPIAN’s greenhouses while huge rotating crop watering arms spray the crops in Egypt’s Western Desert.
So where does blockchain, IoT, cloud computing, AI and geospatial data come into it? These may power components of that ecosystem of partners, suppliers and in-house expertise. When harnessed strategically they can add value, build trust, ensure accountability in supply chains, empower data-driven management decisions and weave a powerfully engaging story of provenance powered by tech for consumers to identify with.
Here are just 7 observations of how new partnerships could build on a strong foundation:
1.??????? Already blockchain is being used to ensure traceability in tuna fisheries from bait to plate. For TOPIAN’s salmon rearing, blockchain enabled traceability could substantiate premium pricing for fish products, directly linked to accountability on natural resource use during production (water, fish-feed and so on).
2.??????? Smart contracts along the value chain can speed up and economise financial transfers. Companies like Ripe and AgriChain are already performing in this space. This can reduce leakage, administrative costs, paperwork and so on.
3.??????? Connectivity of remote sensing such as vision technologies from companies like Cainthus by Ever.Ag , could be applied to monitor individual fish welfare in the rearing tanks, reacting in real-time to stress events, reducing sickness, loss of stocks and so forth.
4.??????? AI algorithms from CRM Saas like Salesforce and omnichannel digital marketing can be used to better understand Saudi consumers and buying units over time, helping TOPIAN better address their pain points, establish pricing based on consumer insights gathered in secure CRMs.
5.??????? Cloud computing can help reduce energy and hardware costs, centralise vast amounts of data across the various production facilities etc which can then be analyzed to identify new opportunities for savings, value-adding as has been the case of 拜耳 harnessing Microsoft’s Cloud Agronomics
6.??????? Geospatial data from various sources combined with AI as is the case with solutions from 3Bee and IUCN ’s Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool for example can help
·????? Monitor local biodiversity (e.g. pollinator presence) - useful for crops.
·????? As well as pinpoint the optimal locations for crop development vis a vis local community land needs and
·????? Monitor any local migratory wildlife populations to reduce human-wildlife conflicts.?
7.??????? Further, AI solutions like those from EROAD can help with managing cold-chain logistics - critical for delivering the predicted 600,000 tons of salmon output from TOPIAN across the domestic Saudi market. Again optimising logistics can reduce loss, spoilage, petrol consumption, energy usage for refrigeration, road-time etc.
How exciting. And this is just scratching the surface: especially true given Saudi Arabia’s high-ranking in the Global Digital Readiness index in recent years as well as NEOM’s commitment to invest in local capacity through collaborations with local universities on training and entrepreneurship programs.
Personally, the key learning is how the synergistic effect of a model, built on innovation and partnership to solve real everyday food challenges, has catalysed a virtuous circle of further innovation. In short, the model does not bring all the answers. Instead, it sparks engagement, attracting innovative thinking and solutions minded entrepreneurs to help manifest the vision, facilitated by the enabling conditions of the market: policy. Of course, there are aspects of circularity to bring in: regenerative agricultural approaches, integration of local plant and fish species into production systems, ensuring waste can be minimized and converted into value adding activities such as energy or fertliser.
Let’s face it, the current industrial approach that dominates global food production brings disproportionate impacts to environment and communities. We need transformation, and we need it fast. We won’t get it right immediately and large-scale approaches like TOPIAN are certainly not the only piece of the puzzle. Indeed established agribusiness and food producers are not going to disappear but they will follow change led by innovative projects that have resources to shape an economy such as Saudi Arabia’s. Grassroots solutions merit their own article (at least 1), but in broad summary on that point there seems great opportunity for:
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In short a culture change where consumers reconnect with food and nature (conscious not everyone on this planet has the luxury of choice when it comes to food and nutrition), becoming engaged producers. This is vital to achieving the culture shift toward more sustainable production and consumption - everyone has skin on the game.
In any case, whether or not this kind of behaviour change messaging is part of NEOM or TOPIAN’s outreach, it remains relevant to the broader human population - 51% of whom now live in urban environments. And cities may be major economic furnaces but they are often “a world away” from farms that feed them.
So indeed, TOPIAN is not a panacea but it may be credibly called a pioneer, encouraging other businesses and even countries to find their own way toward achieving food security. The ideas shared in this article simply build on a substrate that is the TOPIAN vision - a proactive vision, combined with partnerships and relevant technologies can help us manifest big food dreams that help protect the planet, in a matter of years. Like most things in life, it is a journey, but also a race - which can keep it fun and exciting to watch or to participate in.
Watching the pace of development in the Saudi desert, the future seems to be approaching fast.
Some references:
About Me:
I love food and nature and helping businesses unlock the potential of engaging with nature in their operations and communications. With +20 years’ cross-sectorial experience in strategic marketing, communications and engagement, I take a holistic view of the issue, bringing a consumer oriented focus to solving strategic problems that help deliver a social and just world for all. To that end I’m currently completing studies in sustainability and AI/blockchain with MIT, convinced by experience technology can play an accelerating role in driving systemic changes we need to achieve sustainable living on Earth. I’d love to hear about you and what challenges your business is facing. Contact or connect anytime. Looking forward to to speaking.
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