Women Leadership in AgTech

On Feb 25, 2021, the World Bank Group launched the inaugural Women AgTech Webinar series to increase the investment in AgTech, focusing on women-led AgTech companies. During this webinar, AgTech women leaders discussed key digital innovations to empower the small holder farmers with data and advanced analytics to improve the productivity of agriculture which in the long run will lift them out of poverty. The AgTech women leaders also shared about their product offering for advisory to provide farmers with comprehensive information on prices, crop planning, and weather, pests, and disease control. Here is the recording.

During the webinar, we discussed how the intersection of technology and policy framework in agriculture can help transform the sector at scale with data and innovation, bringing strategic partnership between public and private key stakeholders. The pathways through which digital technologies could accelerate the transformation of the agrifood system were explored, as well as the role of public policy in creating incentives to prompt private economic agents to maximize societal benefits.

While there have been significant investments in AgTech firms over the last few years, women-led AgTech firms have received less funding than male-led AgTech companies. In 2018, only 7% of AgTech deals and 3% of the record-breaking volume of dollars invested in the sector went to female-founded teams, according to the report released by AgFunder, Karen Karp & Partners and The New Food Economy in collaboration with S2G Ventures. “A structural bias exists which prevents female founders and CEOs from accessing capital to start and grow their Agri-FoodTech enterprises,” from the report, Money Where Our Mouths Are to investigate funding disparities between male and female AgTech founders.

Key takeaways from the webinar:

●       Digital transformation of agriculture is driving radical innovations to help improve productivity, solve large climate challenges, enhance supply chain efficiency, and provide smallholder farmers access to finance and resources. AgTech has the power to improve the resiliency of the food production ecosystem.

●       Mentorship, partnership, and entrepreneurial networks play a crucial role in empowering women in AgTech.

●       AgTech requires patient capital due to the nature of the agricultural supply chain — access to resources is centralized in the hands of large corporations.

●       In male-dominated industries like agriculture and technology, government intervention to increase funding opportunities and decrease barriers is especially important to support women founders.

●       Governments must address climate challenges and push for quantitative measures with greater accountability on sustainability from large companies.

Ponsi Trivisvavet (CEO of Inari) gave an overview of Inari’s corporate ambition, followed by an explanation of Inari’s platform and technology innovations.

●       Inari’s overarching goal is “to help catalyze transformation of the global food system and put it on a truly sustainable path.” She explained that Inari is “compelled by using existing genetic diversity in plants to address some really big global challenges,” citing plant diversity as the starting point of Inari’s work.

●       Inari’s “ability to make targeted and direct edits of the genome confers benefits not only to farmers but consumers and the planet.” The company has “demonstrated the great potential of multiplex editing to solve the challenge of feeding the world, nutrition and sustainability.”

●       Inari’s SEEDesign platform uses deep learning algorithms and proprietary tools to make multiple edits across multiple genes at the same time. The platform allows creating products, for example significant soybean yield increase. When that increase is projected over soybeans planted in the US and Brazil, it could translate to 30 million acres of land being re-routed back to nature. This is a prime example of how technology can drive direct and positive change in the global food system in a sustainable manner.

●       Their first set of products have been confirmed by USDA as non-regulated.

Mariana Vasconcelos (CEO of AgroSmart) discussed how AgroSmart’s platform empowers farmers to make data-driven decisions and increase crop yield.

●       The first value add AgroSmart offers is the collection and aggregation of data. As Mariana described, “The first step is to have data. In emerging countries, that’s a huge challenge as there is low access because of education levels, finance access, connectivity and infrastructure, and so on.” AgroSmart provides an IoT solution, where they use sensors and their own connectivity solution to collect different types of data. Then, that data from sensors is combined with satellite imagery.

●       AgroSmart uses proprietary algorithms on areas such as irrigation and weather forecasts to offer actionable insights for farmers. The platform predicts pests and diseases and provides real-time alerts. So far, AgroSmart has increased crop yield and saved Brazil’s farmers up to 60% in water usage.

●       The company also works across the supply chain, partnering with corporations to help orient R&D initiatives through data. AgroSmart tackles smallholder farms by operating in a shared economy model while helping develop a resiliency strategy.

●       AgroSmart has been collaborating with banks to create more accessible financial products, such as green bonds and carbon credits.

●       Because of its goal to improve outcomes for smallholder farmers, AgroSmart is considered an impact company and actively addresses the UN SDGs.

Johanna Hartung represented GIZ funder’s viewpoint and spoke about the significance of support networks for women founders in AgTech in Africa.

●       She introduced a few female role models in AgTech in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Alima Bawah (founder of Cowtribe, a smart logistics platform) and Cynthia Aveh (founder of Trusteefarm, a farm-to-work food traceability ecosystem that relies on blockchain technology).

●       Overall, AgTech is not sufficiently prioritizing gender disparities. Johanna explained barriers faced by women AgTech founders in Africa, such as the gender gap in technology access and the male-dominant VC ecosystem. As Johanna describes, “relative uptake of technology particularly among women farmers is particularly low.”

●       She emphasized the importance of strategic support for women in AgTech, including P2P exchange and mentorship, support organizations like innovation hubs and accelerator programs, partnerships between startups and tech providers, and dedicated funds to increase access to finance for women founders.

●       She provided a few examples of support programs for women founders in AgTech, including Make-IT in Africa, Deep Dive, and D4Ag platforms.

●       Development organizations can support female founders in AgTech by working together in joint programs, supporting seed and early stage funding, and strengthening ecosystem support organizations.

Both Ponsi and Mariana shared personal stories about their journeys into AgTech and their quest for higher purpose. Ponsi said “It actually didn’t hit me hard until around 9 years ago, when I visited part of Indonesia roughly 5 hours outside of Jakarta. I met a gentleman who is a corn grower, roughly around 75 years old. He thanked me for bringing technology into his farm, one that enabled him to use hybrid corn seeds. Because of the higher yield he received from those corn seeds, he was able to buy meat for his family for the first time. I knew I was going to be in agriculture for the rest of my life after that.”

Mariana came from a farming family. Her parents did not want her to stay on the farm. “Our parents raised [us] to go out and do something outside of farming,” she said. After attending college, she discovered her purpose by merging her passion for technology with her farming roots. Johanna described the myths and stereotypes about female founders in AgTech, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. The gender stereotypes in agriculture and technology — the assumption that men are more skilled than women — can be discouraging for female founders, she explained. She emphasized the importance of collaboration among startup ecosystems that target female founders on the African continent.

The World Bank Practice Manager for East Asia Pacific (EAP) Region, Dina Umali-Deininger emphasized the impact of COVID-19 in exposing weaknesses and gaps in our food ecosystem, highlighting the importance of sustainable growth and food security. She also discussed the enthusiasm in mainstreaming digital agriculture from Ministries of Agriculture in EAP Region, stating that governments are looking towards data platforms, agriculture ecommerce, precision agriculture, food safety traceability systems, and other technologies. Finally, she emphasized the importance of expanding access to smallholder farmers to digital technology to help them leapfrog with access to mobile and data to gain productivity in crop yield.

Bill Sonneborn, Senior Director at IFC, who oversees all investments in Disruptive Technologies and Funds, provided his perspectives on the role of women in the digital transformation of agriculture. IFC has been investing in the AgTech space for a few years, with a fast-growing portfolio of AgTech firms. Bill shared his passion about agriculture from 40 years ago when he grew up in a rural ranch in Montana. Everyone he knew farmed. Women are the big innovators and the micro-entrepreneurs who used intuition and innovation to solve big problems on the farm. Yet, four decades later, just 7% of AgTech investments and 3% of what’s been a record haul of capital going into the sector went to female founded teams. AgTech trails many other tech subsectors in the gender disparity.

COVID-19 pandemic has hit women harder. Women have been affected not only because of the disease itself, but because they work in jobs at the frontline exposure to COVID-19. Furthermore, women-owned businesses have particularly suffered during the lockdown. Women in AgTech are especially disadvantaged when seeking capital for the early stage startups.

The new World Bank Umbrella Program Food Systems 2030 focuses on healthy people, healthy planet and healthy economies and supports digital agriculture as one of five strategic directions. The new report will be launched on March 17, 2021 “ What’s Cooking: Digital Transformation of the Agrifood System” provides insights into the potential of leveraging digital technologies to transform the agrifood system and focuses on the opportunities offered to farmers. Taking a farm-centric approach, this report highlights the role of the public sector and examines the pathways through which digital technologies can accelerate the transformation of the agrifood system through the impact on efficiency, equity, environmental sustainability.

According to FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020-2030 report, a successful implementation of the Policy means embracing innovation, fostering partnerships, leveraging impact, and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness. The international organization is well aware that investing in rural women by enhancing their capacities, decision-making power and access to key resources, services and opportunities, is a winning strategy to accelerate progress towards rural development and food security. Gender parity is the only way to achieve a world free from hunger and malnutrition. We all have a part to play and a lot to gain in making this happen.

From my advocacy on women empowerment and women in tech, it is so crucial that through the lens of the women pioneers and innovators we could change the gender balance in AgTech. Sharing my reflection in 2020, as Senior Fellow at National University of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy on embracing change, bringing tech to farming. 

Happy International Women’s Day on March 8, 2021 ??