Innovation Sprints

Acelen Renewables is combating global climate change with an innovative and impactful decarbonization solution for the aviation industry. By producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from Macauba, a native Brazilian energy crop, Acelen Renewables is also rehabilitating 180,000 hectares of degraded pastures in Northeast Brazil. The company aims to produce 1 billion liters of SAF per year from 2027 and is developing the Acelen Agripark, an innovation center to advance Macauba domestication and commercial-scale production, with a capacity of 10 million seedlings annually. Backed by Mubadala Capital, this initiative starts with a $3 billion USD investment.

The COP28 Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes is co-chaired by COP28, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and Boston Consulting Group and supported by the UN High-Level Climate Champions as well as by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Global Methane Hub, and the World Farmers Organization. With a $2.2 billion USD investment, the partnership aggregates, accelerates, and amplifies existing efforts and new commitments from top food and agriculture players to transition large agricultural landscapes to regenerative agriculture by 2030. This initiative aims to translate commitments into tangible action and projects, benefiting people, climate, and nature.

The Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities seeks to expand markets for America’s climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture, including for small and underserved producers. As America’s farmers and ranchers confront the challenges of climate change, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its partners are working to provide the tools needed to build operational and environmental resiliency by implementing climate-smart production practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon, such as cover crops, no-till, nutrient, and manure management as well as pasture and forest management. Project partners span private, non-profit, and academic sectors, with nearly 100 universities, including over 30 minority-serving institutions, as well as collaboration with over 20 tribes and tribal groups. USDA has invested $3 billion USD across 135 pilot projects through this effort and anticipates an additional $1 billion USD in matching funds from project partners. This first-of-its-kind effort requires projects to: (1) Provide technical and financial assistance to producers to implement climate-smart production practices on a voluntary basis on working lands; (2) Pilot innovative and cost-effective methods for quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas benefits; and (3) Develop markets to promote the resulting climate-smart commodities. Visit the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities project dashboard to learn about the many organizations that contributed non-federal matching funds.

Varaha's innovation sprint aims to deliver $500 million USD in benefits to smallholder farmers in developing countries by 2025, integrating them into the global carbon market. This initiative will empower sustainable agriculture, improving livelihoods while removing 18 million tons of CO2 equivalent across 4 million acres. Leveraging remote sensing, machine learning, and biogeochemical models, Varaha will drive regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, and nature-based solutions to create scalable climate impact and effective carbon sequestration.

The Reverte program provides an integrated solution to recover degraded pastureland areas that involves regenerative agricultural practices, financial solutions, and input-use protocols that make available fertilizers, seeds, machinery, and pesticides for growing soy and other intercropped harvests in Cerrado, Brazil. The goal of restoring 1 million hectares of degraded pastureland by 2030 is a win-win for productivity, avoided emissions, conservation, and farmers' income. The second phase (2023-2025) aims to leverage $460 million USD to restore 255,000 hectares.

The PHYLA innovation sprint scales ecosystem restoration through climate resilient agroforestry, focusing on establishing elite Pongamia and biodiverse agroforestry systems across Sub-Saharan Africa. This initiative will regenerate land and communities while producing feedstocks for biofuel, plant-based proteins, and regenerative food and fiber crops. By collaborating with strategic technology, value chain and offtake partners, PHYLA Earth is pioneering a regenerative blended finance model to catalyze $400 million USD in new investment. The PHYLA innovation sprint transforms the traditionally competitive relationship between food security and energy securities into a highly symbiotic one.

ADM is powering sustainability across the industries in which they participate. With a total investment of $350.4 million USD, ADM’s efforts span their business and value chain and include enrolling 4 million acres of regenerative agriculture by 2025; investing broadly in fermentation technology that powers new plant-based products; a $350 million USD investment in feedstock for renewable diesel; and $400,000 USD in support for the Lifesaving Education and Assistance to Farmers (LEAF) Program in Kenya.

Atlas Agro’s innovation sprint will accelerate the expansion of our local, green nitrogen fertilizer production model with a commitment to have at least two facilities, one in the U.S. and one in Brazil, approved through final investment decision by the end of 2025. Our process uses renewable energy sources to produce green hydrogen, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 99% compared to traditional grey hydrogen production methods. The sprint is focused on establishing the first two sites in our global network of green nitrogen fertilizer facilities, fostering collaboration with key stakeholders, and developing strategies for farmer support and adoption. With a $325 million USD investment through this innovation sprint, we will expand our global reach and accelerate technology deployment.

TechnoServe delivers inclusive, regenerative business solutions that create living incomes, cut emissions, and protect, manage, and restore ecosystems. Through the Farmers Regenerate initiative, TechnoServe enables smallholder farmers in emerging economies to transition to regenerative production, networks with food processors and agribusinesses to build climate and nature-positive food systems, and utilizes geospatial technology for landscape-level planning, monitoring and verification. In addition, TechnoServe will leverage $300 million USD in public and private-sector investment to scale transformative projects around the globe.

Watch Katarina Kahlmann, Chief Program Officer of TechnoServe, discuss the innovation sprint here.

Pivot Bio is committed to eliminating the need for synthetic nitrogen and replacing it with biological nitrogen, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide. To calculate these benefits we will track, quantify, and verify the reduced emissions from the avoidance of synthetic nitrogen. We are committing to $291 million USD over 4 years in both R&D and product development to rapidly scale new adoption across the globe by improving the nitrogen replacement capacity of our microbes.

Watch Karsten Temme, Chief Innovation Officer and co-founder of Pivot Bio, discuss the Innovation Sprint here.

Watch this Innovation Report episode to learn more about Pivot Bio's impacts.

CGIAR and Big Valley GmbH are launching a $250 million USD impact fund to combat climate risks threatening small-scale farmers across Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Africa, which remain acutely vulnerable to climate extremes yet receive inadequate financing to adopt resilient practices. This science-driven initiative provides patient debt to 25-30 financial institutions, supporting small-scale farmers’ transitions to climate-smart technologies. Leveraging concessional capital, the fund seeks to mobilize private finance, expanding climate-adaptive financing in agriculture to strengthen food security and sustainable rural livelihoods.

Biomass fermentation is a resource-efficient protein production method with up to 97% lower feed and water input requirements. This climate-smart, low-cost technology can be used to feed a growing population while reducing the emissions associated with protein production by up to 95%. Through a $228 million USD global investment by 2025, this Innovation Sprint will develop fermented protein functionality and scale up these technologies to reach a broader market and bolster global food security.

Using emerging technologies and extensive distribution networks, CF Industries and CHS are partnering to produce lower greenhouse gas (GHG) nitrogen fertilizer to distribute to American farmers. This partnership will enable farmers and their agricultural and food company customers to reduce their upstream emissions in a certain and quantifiable way, while continuing to ensure strong crop yields. We estimate the investment in this partnership to support sustainable, climate-smart agriculture and food systems is approximately $200 million USD.

Watch Bert Frost, Executive VP of Sales, Market Development, and Supply Chain at CF Industries, discuss the innovation sprint here. 

To scale the deployment of climate-smart agriculture, Boomitra will deliver $200 million in carbon finance to farmers and ranchers in the developing world by 2025. The initiative will leverage Boomitra's proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) and remote sensing technology, as well as the support of global partners, to implement projects that increase soil carbon, thereby unlocking gigaton-scale carbon removal. The $200 million pledged represents an increased investment and is expected to remove 13 million tons of carbon across 5 million acres.

Watch Aadith Moorthy, CEO & Founder of Boomitra, discuss the Innovation Sprint here.

The Ag360 Climate Fund is a 10-year, $150 million USD blended impact fund investing in gender-responsive circular agriculture projects in the Global South. It finances innovative agriculture waste-biochar initiatives and corporate loans to agriculture small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Key solutions include regenerative farming, waste-to-energy, and composting. Biochar, produced from agricultural waste, enhances soil fertility and sequesters carbon. The fund promotes sustainable farming systems while providing technical assistance to improve climate resilience and support local livelihoods.

This sprint has mobilized $145 million USD and aims to mobilize at least $200 million total from philanthropy, public and private sector in a global, coordinated research and development initiative to accelerate progress in development and implementation of methane mitigating technologies. The sprint will address: long-term trials of feed additives; development of new additives; genetic tools and protocols to select for low-emitting livestock; microbiome research to underpin the above research areas; and information necessary to facilitate regulatory approval of mitigation technologies.

Inari has secured $124 million USD for an innovation sprint to concentrate on developing high-yield, low-input crops, focusing on wheat, soybeans, and corn. The funding will allow Inari to efficiently evaluate multiple gene edits and introduce high-performance edits into locally adapted elite germplasm. Inari's sprint will progress toward the objective of wheat that is 10% more productive, soybeans that are 20% more productive, and corn that is 10% more productive and requires 40% less water and nitrogen.

Watch Ponsi Trivisvavet, CEO of Inari, discuss the innovation sprint here.

By harnessing the power of microbes, Loam Bio unlocks the opportunity for gigatonne scale carbon removal from the atmosphere, while increasing soil health and productivity in agriculture. $105 million USD has been committed to catalyze the market for high quality, robust carbon removal and sequestration in broadacre cropping soils. By 2025, this will be deployed into upscaled manufacturing capacity, continued product development and R&D to launch products for new crop types and microbes, as well as farmer education and extension activities to drive adoption of the technology across the globe.

TomorrowNow.org, Tomorrow.io, and partners are pioneering an Africa-first innovation spirit to empower 20 million smallholder farmers over five years with next-gen location-based timely agri-weather services. Together, we build on established activities in East Africa, including efforts funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to leverage $80 million USD in private sector investment and $20 million USD in transformative philanthropy to connect governments and local agricultural value chain partners with next-gen weather intelligence and lay the foundations for rapid scale and sustainability.

To foster the integration of the fragmented venture capital (VC) ecosystems across the Americas, Mana Tech Latam Impact Fund I is investing $100 million USD to reduce the gap between the typical Series A investment round in Latin America and the ones in the U.S. by co-investing with U.S. and international VC Funds in high-growth Impact Latin American Series-A startups already backed by the region's top-tier VC Funds. The Fund will focus on opportunities in verticals such as Agrifoodtech and Climatech to expand its economic, social, and environmental impact. U.S. and international investors are expected to co-invest an average of five for every dollar invested. As a result, the $100M Mana Tech Impact Latam Fund should generate about $500 million in investments in Latin American climate-smart agriculture tech companies in the coming years.

GreenLight Biosciences is developing and commercializing climate smart biopesticides that are effective, easy to use, and environmentally friendly. GreenLight has invested $100 million USD to launch its first series of products by 2028, including a solution to the number one threat to bees, and is advancing exploration into additional segments such as weed control. These efforts promise to protect farmers' yield on over 6 million hectares and improve bee survival up to 70% while respecting biodiversity.

The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) aims to foster more resilient food systems, with an initial focus on the African continent. VACS seeks to boost agricultural productivity and nutrition by developing diverse, climate-resilient crop varieties and building healthy soils. Through bilateral and private sector partnerships, VACS will mobilize resources for agricultural R&D with both direct and in-kind contributions. VACS has invested $100 million USD in new funding.

To feed 10 billion people by 2050, the demand for animal protein is expected to grow by more than 50%. The Bezos Earth Fund innovation sprint aims to increase investment and partnerships for alternative proteins. Alternative proteins are products that substitute animal-based meat, dairy, and eggs and can be: i) Plant-based proteins (using soy, pea, wheat, and other plants to produce alternatives), ii) fermentation-based proteins (using microbes to produce bioidentical alternatives to animal products) or fungi to produce whole biomass meat alternatives, and iii) cultivated proteins (growing protein using actual cells extracted from animals). This sprint will catalyze $150+ million USD investment for alternative protein R&D, including the $100 million USD awarded by the Bezos Earth Fund to the 3 recently established Bezos Centers for Sustainable Proteins in USA, UK, and Singapore. It will galvanize technological support, and instrumentalize cooperation and partnerships from public and private sector actors to support the Centers in protein diversification and service the needs of the industry.

The Farmlink Project’s innovation sprint ($100 million USD by 2030) launched in August 2024 to reduce U.S. hunger and food waste emissions through large-scale produce recovery, USDA farmer reimbursements, and third-party emissions verification. By creating a verified open-source tool, we will quantify the climate benefits of food recovery. This effort boosts climate and agricultural security – protecting farmers' livelihoods and supplying food-insecure communities while mitigating $57.6 million in social damages from greenhouse gas emissions.

Watch Julia DeSantis, Director of Sustainability at The Farmlink Project, describe more about the Innovation Sprint here.

Addressing both climate challenges and the current fertilizer supply crisis, this sprint will enable and empower small-scale producers in target regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America to achieve effective and efficient nitrogen fertilizer management over the next four years (2022-2025). By tailoring validated fertility management practices to their specific conditions, smallholders will optimize productivity, enhance climate resilience, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. With a planned budget of approximately $89 million USD until the end of 2025.

The private sector, the U.S., Ireland, and research partners will support transforming the Malawian food system to be climate resilient, provide nutritious food, and support inclusive, sustainable growth. Deployment of $60+ million USD in investments and innovations will support rural development with firms like Malawi Mangos and Pxyus, surrounding communities, smallholder organizations, and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through a growth pole approach and a youth and gender transformative lens. Over $200 million in additional private investments will be mobilized in five years.

Bayer is pleased to pledge $60 million USD over four years towards Precision Breeding initiatives, which aim to create a design-driven methodology for crop improvement, developing more resilient crops, and sustainable product concepts. Precision Breeding combines Bayer’s industry-leading germplasm, deep genomic insights with globally connected field and environmental insights to develop better solutions faster. The sprint aims to empower farmers to adjust to changing climatic conditions while decreasing environmental impact in both the breeding R&D process and on the farm. 

Agtech Accelerator is a venture capital-backed program established by Cultivator powered by Conexus, Economic Development Regina, and Emmertech to increase the investment, innovation, and adoption of climate-smart agriculture technology. Bolstered by the $60 million USD Emmertech fund, this three-year innovation sprint provides agtech startups across Canada and the UK with access to the capital, programming, and connections needed to address issues in food security and the climate crisis.

Increasing sustainable nutrition while delivering a positive environmental impact, Food Systems for the Future and partners will build and operate Africa's first automated insect protein production facility. The Kigali-based facility will upcycle the city's organic waste into a protein-rich feed input as well as a soil-enriching biofertilizer, reducing Rwanda's reliance on both soy-based feed and chemical fertilizer. Consequently, it will support the poultry and aquaculture industry's ability to produce affordable and accessible protein while also reducing CO2 emissions. Supported by proven global technology, local business acumen, and the national Rwanda government, the $55.5 million USD project will come online in 2025.

Watch Ertharin Cousin, Founder, President, and CEO of Food Systems for the Future, and Agripreneur Jean-Paul Mutalikanwa discuss the innovation sprint here. 

On-farm agroforestry has proven benefits for income, agricultural productivity, adaptation, and mitigation on smallholder farms in low- and middle-income countries. This partnership leverages over $50 million USD in committed funding to plant 250 million trees by 2025. In doing this, it will compare the cost-efficiency and effectiveness of four innovative scaling models, to pioneer the mass deployment of tree-planting for climate-vulnerable farmers in nine African countries, with the goal of planting 1 billion trees in the next decade.

United Airlines Ventures along with Tallgrass Energy Partners and Green Plains Inc./Blue Blade Energy will invest up to a combined $50 million USD to develop and commercialize a novel Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) technology. They will be finalizing development of this technology over the next two years. If successful, Blue Blade aims to commence construction of a pilot facility in 2024, followed by a full-scale facility that could begin operations by 2028.

Mati Carbon’s mission is to enable climate resilience for smallholder farmers by improving crop productivity and using direct benefits transfer from carbon removal economics. Spreading rock dusts in farmlands removes carbon dioxide by accelerating the natural weathering process and improving crop productivity for smallholder farmers. Mati Carbon is investing $50 million USD over 4 years with a focus on developing scientific robust, scalable, and cost-effective carbon removal that will benefit the smallholder farmers in the global south.

Watch Shantanu Agrawal, Founder and CEO of Mati Carbon, discuss the Innovation Sprint here. 

BRAC and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture aim to forge a Smallholder Action Coalition for Climate Adaptation (SACCA). A total of $50 million USD will be invested from 2024-2028 to implement large-scale climate action programs. The initial project in Bangladesh plans to support one million smallholders (>35% women) to diversify their farms and adopt climate-smart innovations.

GENESIS aims to pioneer the wide-scale deployment of sustainable, efficient, and scalable solar-powered drip irrigation and solar thermal systems to empower local farmers, enhance maize production in Nigeria, and decarbonize dairy production in Zambia. GENESIS plans to invest at least $50 million USD for the next two years, through 2025, for these solutions across Zambia and Nigeria. As part of the programme, training will be provided on efficient agricultural practices, solar panel installation, and operational system management with a particular focus on women empowerment.

Silica is an enhanced rock weathering project developer permanently removing carbon dioxide (CO2) in Latin America, starting with Mexican sugarcane regions. Silica’s mission is to remove CO2 at scale while regenerating soils, increasing crop yields, and improving the livelihoods of rural communities. Silica’s projects are expected to permanently remove 300,000+ net tons of CO2 through 2028. Silica will spread approximately 5 million tons of rock dust across 250,000 hectares, impacting 50,000+ smallholder farmers, through deployment of $48 million USD of capital.

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and the World Farmers Organisation established AgMission™. At the core of climate change is greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Agriculture contributes roughly 13 percent of global GHG emissions, yet the sector has the potential to also mitigate climate change. While advances to activate agriculture’s mitigation potential are happening in fields and labs around the world, there is no unifying force connecting this work or fostering inclusivity and collaboration among scientists, farmers, and ranchers.

AgMission is filling this void by establishing a global collective of farmers, ranchers and scientists co-creating and rapidly expanding innovation, adaptation and the adoption of climate-smart technologies. By driving collaboration across agricultural and scientific communities, AgMission is accelerating effective, economically viable and locally customized climate-smart solutions.

AgMission has raised $45 million USD, including FFAR's matching funds, and continues to fundraise for this unprecedented initiative.

To put global agriculture on a path to mitigate 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide per year from protein production by 2050, the Good Food Institute and EIT Food, with support from Climate and Land Use Alliance, Good Energies Foundation, and Climate Advisers, are investing $41 million USD in open-access research globally to accelerate the development of sustainable plant-based and cultivated meats that are comparable in taste and price to conventional meat, and can generate new economic opportunities. Widespread adoption of sustainable proteins will mitigate direct methane emissions from agriculture, reduce deforestation, and free up millions of hectares for conservation and climate-focused land management.

A new $40 million USD initiative led by the CGIAR, in partnership with the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will unlock key climate-resilient traits from CGIAR’s vast global genebank collections. This innovation sprint will expand the utilization of high-value genetic diversity to address current and emerging climate challenges faced by millions of smallholder farmers worldwide. The initiative welcomes additional partners from all sectors to scale this critical work.

Cellular agriculture includes techniques for making animal products with significantly reduced environmental impact. Cultivated meat is a prime example as it can slash greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water use considerably. Through a $40 million USD investment in R&D over five years, this multi-stakeholder innovation sprint, carried out by Aleph Farms, enables a just transition to resilient production systems that enhance food security, spur economic growth, empower local communities and foster regional cooperation. 

Crop One Holdings and Emirates Flight Catering entered a $40 million USD joint venture to open ECO 1 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The 330,000 square foot facility will provide food security for the Middle East by producing over three tons of high-quality leafy greens daily, using 95% less water than conventionally grown produce. ECO 1 is designed for continuous output of clean leafy greens grown without pesticides or chemicals. Crop One is helping grow a more sustainable global food system through its industry-leading vertical farming technology.

Watch Craig Ratajczyk, CEO of Crop One Holdings, discuss the innovation sprint here.

Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) in the MENA region provides financial support, technical assistance, and investment facilitation to scale Small to Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) that impact all sectors of the nexus of food, water, and energy. Up to 50 innovators are supported with up to $250,000 each to reach 750,000 smallholder farmers and end-users, of which 25% are women. Until mid-2025, WE4F seeks to leverage and expand upon the $33 million USD mobilized so far.

The CGIAR and 20 partners are leveraging $31 million USD over 4 years (2023-2027) to ensure that climate innovations in agrifood systems are designed to work for women and rolled out in ways that address underlying gender inequalities. The sprint will accomplish this by: 1) testing new climate innovations that address both climate change and gender inequality, 2) promoting more widespread, inclusive uptake of climate solutions, and 3) developing metrics to measure progress towards these goals.

Watch Nicoline de Haan, Director of CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform introduce their Innovation Sprint, highlighting why climate solutions need to include women here.

The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) is the only global organization that recovers and redistributes food surplus at scale and engages member food banks in nearly 50 countries. GFN will accelerate food insecurity and hunger reduction through four key mechanisms: (1) mapping and leveraging food loss and waste data, (2) quantifying the environmental benefits of food recovery, (3) scaling technological and logistical solutions to increase food bank capacity, and (4) expanding their policy research to drive food systems change. GFN estimates that with an investment of $31 million USD from 2021 through 2025, these combined interventions could reduce food loss and waste by a total of 5%, which corresponds to a reduction of 7.5 million metric tons of CO2e. However, GFN will need scaled viability and investment in the food recovery and redistribution model to achieve these bold and critical goals.

BetterFedFoods LLC is an innovative leader in providing Climate-Smart Premiums to beef producers practicing regenerative farming through microalgae to improve soil organic matter, plant health, and animal performance. Extensive university research and commercial trials have validated the practices, as well as improving traceability and engaging consumers through product-specific QR codes driven by blockchain. In addition, BetterFedFoods LLC has leveraged approximately $30 million USD to establish a supply chain of sustainable products.

The IBM Sustainability Accelerator is a pro-bono social impact program advancing nonprofit and government initiatives that support vulnerable populations while addressing environmental challenges, including climate change, extreme weather, and pollution. IBM will provide the first cohort of participating organizations with technology and expertise to accelerate climate-smart agriculture solutions. Partners are welcome globally. Through 2025, Accelerator projects will receive an estimated market value of $30 million USD in IBM support including $10 million USD focused on sustainable agriculture.

Watch the IBM Sustainability Accelerator introductory video.

Watch the Innovation Report episode about the IBM Sustainability Accelerator to learn about their impacts.

Veea and partners are directing $30 million USD to climate-smart innovation for smallholder farmers in the Southeast Asia region and beyond. Veea provides hyper-converged edge computing, connectivity, and security that sit at the “user edge”, where people, places, and things connect to networks, and for this sprint, connecting sensors and actuators on smallholder farms in emerging and nascent nations. The goal is to enrich edge applications with real-time, local data merged with cloud-based information and artificial intelligence (AI) to increase productivity and reduce resource utilization and waste in the agriculture value chain. For more information please see: www.veea.com/aim4climate 

The Agroecological TRANSITIONS’ Inclusive Digital Tools project (ATDT) aims to leverage $25 million USD to develop digital solutions for smallholder farmers to scale up agroecological practices. The program will expand access of low-cost digital technical advisories and performance assessment tools to 100,000 farmers in ten countries and five value chains in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This will enable farmer co-creation and rapid development of site-appropriate climate change resilience and mitigation measures based on agroecological principles.

Heka Cloud’s innovation sprint is a 12-month field pilot project focused on water abundance for agriculture and food security, covering 65,000 km2 area in the United Arab Emirates. The artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, automated field ion emitter systems intelligently harvest atmospheric humidity to generate the controlled precipitation daily. The sprint’s total increased investment is $25 million USD.

A new $24 million initiative led by the OneCGIAR, Livestock, Climate and System Resilience (LCSR) is designed to meet the “double burden” challenge that climate change poses for livestock production. It addresses both adaptation and mitigation priorities for livestock production systems in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mali, Senegal, Guatemala, and Colombia, delivering strategic, well-targeted action research that provides answers to the tough choices and tradeoffs, as well as ‘investable’ solutions that influence policy and attract climate finance.

Coffee production is a source of carbon emissions through the significant use of fertilizer, energy, and land. With a combined investment of over $21 million, ofi is working with USAID and other partners in Peru, Mexico, and DR Congo to train farmers on climate-smart agricultural practices and step-up carbon capture activities. We can track the impact of these activities on our coffee footprint through the environmental metrics of our sustainability management system AtSource.

Watch Vivek Verma, Managing Director and CEO of Coffee at ofi, discuss the Innovation Sprint here. 

The Integrated Desert Farming Innovation Platform will support the Arabian Peninsula and MENA region in boosting employment and income. It also aims to ensure food, nutrition, and water security for their populations as they face the impacts of climate change through integrating and fast-tracking innovative and circular desert farming technologies and business models. In addition, the Sprint aims to leverage an increased level of investment from $7 million over five years to $20 million by the end of 2025.

The Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) and its partners will empower seed system actors to deliver climate-resilient bean varieties more efficiently to smallholder farmers in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Mobilizing $20 million toward a demand-led and research-guided ‘bean corridor’ approach, this sprint innovation will accelerate bundling and scaling genetic and institutional innovations to improve bean productivity for three million farmers, two million of them accessing remunerative markets and 60% being women.

Watch Jean Claude Rubyogo, Director of PABRA, discuss the Innovation Sprint here. 

The Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration project is the largest soil health study on working U.S. dairies. Launched in 2021, the six-year project covers four major dairy regions, reaching 80% of U.S. milk production, and measures how differing growing practices impact soil health and reduce emissions under varying climates and conditions. Partners are investing at least $10 million, with up to $10 million in matching funds from the Foundation of Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR). Findings will help to accelerate climate-smart solutions.

Watch Tim Kurt, SVP of Environmental Research at Dairy Management Inc., discuss the Innovation Sprint here.

Locus Agriculture aims to make food and fashion products more sustainable by using non-GMO biological soil inoculants that reduce N2O emissions by over 30%. This method also increases nitrogen use efficiency and yields by over 10%, while building back soil organic carbon stocks by 7.5 mtons CO2e/hectare versus conventional practices. With promising results on more than 120,000 hectares in 2022/2023, Locus and partners are looking to expand to 0.5-1 million hectares abating up to 6 million mtons CO2e. Locus Agriculture has invested over $8 million with a further $12 million earmarked for the next two years, for a $20 million total investment.

Community Jameel is partnering with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet, a new initiative to empower adaptation and mitigation for climate shocks within the agriculture sector. This will combine state-of-the-art climate and socioeconomic forecasting techniques with resilience technologies and unique private, public, and community partnerships. It will pilot in Bangladesh and Sudan, working with local partners. The total increase in aggregate self-financed investment is $18.5 million.

Watch Uzma Sulaiman, Associate Director of Community Jameel, discuss the Innovation Sprint here.

With an investment of $15.5 million USD, this innovation sprint integrates 18 initiatives to generate solutions for farmers, communities, and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean across fourteen countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela. The solutions target equitable and sustainable food security alongside resiliency and inclusion when combatting climate change. In addition, several organizations joined FONTAGRO to co-finance science, technology, and innovations to tackle challenges by working directly with scientists, extensionists, and farmers and to create public goods that help the region cope with climate challenges. 

With a budget of $15 million USD over the next three years (end of 2025) and the support of donors and partners, KickStart International will drive the uptake of 100,000 carbon-neutral irrigation pumps among smallholders, spread across 16 Sub-Saharan countries, allowing them to harvest year-round sustainably, respond to and mitigate climate change, and tackle household poverty.

Watch Martin Fisher, CEO and co-founder of Kickstart, discuss the innovation sprint here. 

Gigatonne trains and resources teams worldwide to reduce, remove, and avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while providing jobs, food, and energy security to people in the bottom 20% of the socio-economic bracket. These teams develop scalable prototypes in food waste management, zero emissions transport networks, renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, land use, and carbon sequestration. Gigatonne is raising a $15 million USD Global Fund with its coalition partners to support the work of teams whose sustainability is bolstered by “Super Credits” which emphasize radical transparency.

Shamba Shape Up (SSU) is a highly influential TV, radio, and social media series that is making a transformative impact on agriculture across Sub-Saharan Africa. Through its engaging and informative content, SSU provides practical, hands-on solutions to farmers in Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia, equipping them with essential skills and knowledge to enhance their agricultural practices. The SSU programs focus on a wide range of topics, including climate-smart techniques, improved crop and livestock management, clean energy use, nutrition, financial literacy, and sustainable farming methods. The program currently reaches millions of rural farmers through TV broadcasts, radio shows, and digital platforms, effectively addressing the information gap in remote and underserved areas. With a committed investment of $15 million USD over five years, SSU aims to expand its reach to five additional low- and middle-income countries by 2026, starting with Ethiopia, and will continue to extend its impact to more African nations in subsequent years.

Nourishing Prosperity Alliance (NPA) is led by Land O’Lakes Venture37 with Forage Genetics International, Corteva Agriscience, and the International Livestock Research Institute. The pilot launched in Kenya in 2020, providing a scalable, market-wide solution to key gaps in the animal nutrition market to improve dairy production, boost climate resilience among farmers, increase access to animal-sourced foods, and reduce emissions by promoting climate-smart agriculture and optimized animal nutrition practices. NPA has exceeded the original increased investment announced in 2022, now reaching $14.6 million USD in in-kind and financial investments.

There is a way to help farmers grow their incomes more sustainably using climate-smart agriculture. Collaborating with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Rainforest Alliance, and industry partners, Olam Food Ingredients (ofi) is working with cocoa farmers in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, under the Resilient Ecosystems and Sustainable Transformation of Rural Economies (RESTORE) project. Over five years, USAID, ofi, and partners are investing $14 million USD in supporting 15,000 farmers to acquire skills and tools to better protect their livelihoods and landscapes.

The Sustainable Pesticide Management Framework (SPMF) is a proactive, long-term engagement that supports low- and middle- income countries in their responsible use of pesticides and provides access to climate-smart crop protection innovations to smallholder farmers. Expanded access to the newest innovations in crop protection allows farmers to increase their resilience to climate change and maintain or grow their productivity, often while preserving soil health and carbon sequestration. By combining best practices in regulatory and stewardship, the SPMF creates an enabling environment for innovation; builds an infrastructure that supports sustainable pesticide management through poison centers, incident reporting, container management programs, and anti-counterfeit activities; and helps farmers respond to climate crises through accelerated access to the latest crop protection chemistries. With an investment of $13 million USD over five years, the SPMF will launch in nine priority low- and middle-income countries, beginning in 2022 in Kenya and Morocco.

Watch this episode of the AIM for Climate Innovation Report to learn more about the SPMF's positive impacts on sustainability and producer safety.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Bayer Crop Science will engage with smallholder farmers in Asia and Africa in research on the sustainable adoption of direct seeded rice. The project’s goal is to improve farmer livelihoods integrating gender equity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the rice growing systems. Through 2025, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will invest $8.5 million USD at IRRI in partnership with Bayer Crop Science contributing an additional up to $4 million USD of in-kind support.

The ClimateAi team seeks to “climate-proof” 0.5 billion acres around the world by 2024 by deploying artificial intelligence (AI)-driven adaptation tools that boost agricultural productivity despite climate change. ClimateAi’s innovative climate analytics (1 day to 40 years out) help farmers and agribusinesses adapt by enabling data-driven decisions to maximize yield, crop quality, resource efficiency, and financial stability/profits while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per ton. ClimateAi has raised $12 million USD from investors and $250,000 USD in grant funding from the National Science Foundation.

The Integrated Data Systems Initiative will provide multidimensional decision support to mainstream finance for healthy, sustainable food systems. The resulting data systems will feed into a new financial mechanism, the Co-Investment Platform for Food Systems Transformation. The initiative will mobilize $10 million USD over five years to support the mobilization of at least $10 billion USD in catalytic finance and wider pools of investment through the Co-Investment Platform over that same period. 

Cellular agriculture, a technology that produces animal products using cell cultures, could contribute to building resilient food systems with lower climate impacts. However, the climate benefits of this technology must be deliberately woven into its development. Through this Sprint, Cellular Agriculture for the Public Good, New Harvest aims to invest $10 million USD internationally to advance open research, drive evidence-based policy, and break down silos to inspire collaboration toward establishing cellular agriculture as a climate-smart food systems tool.

This innovation sprint aims to unlock the immense potential of green jobs for young people, with a strong focus on gender equity and inclusive opportunities in the green economy. The goals of the innovation sprint are 1) empowerment in green skill sets and entrepreneurship of at least 5,000 youth, and 2) promotion of clear, accessible, and gender-inclusive job pathways into the green economy for small-holder farmers. With our innovation sprint participants, the sprint will mobilize $10 million USD in private sector investment to create and scale 20 youth-led green initiatives or businesses.

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) launched the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium, as part of the Global Fertilizer Challenge, to advance efficient, environmentally beneficial and cost-effective fertilizers, and management practices. The Efficient Fertilizer Consortium amplifies investments that increase nutrient-use efficiency, generate new and improved fertilizers, reduce fertilizer use and support sustainable productivity. FFAR will raise funds to match federal contributions of $4.45 million USD, allowing the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium to award at least $8.9 million USD in research funding.

Watch Saharah Moon Chapotin, Executive Director of FFAR, discuss the innovation sprint here. 

This innovation sprint aims to revolutionize agriculture in arid regions by deploying a scalable, climate-smart agroforestry model. Led by Sand to Green, in collaboration with OSMOSUN and Access Impact, this project will convert 50 hectares of barren desert into fertile, productive land by 2025. Utilizing solar-powered desalination technology, we will provide a sustainable water source, essential for implementing advanced agroforestry techniques that enhance soil health, increase biodiversity, and boost crop yields by up to 30%. A key innovation is our approach to brine management. By cultivating halophyte plants that thrive in saline conditions, we will transform the byproducts of desalination into valuable biomass, enhancing soil quality and creating additional economic opportunities. This sprint will directly benefit smallholder farmers in Morocco by offering resilient agricultural practices that improve food security and livelihoods. The project will also mitigate climate change by sequestering approximately 13 tons of CO2 per hectare annually. Furthermore, it will create new job opportunities and build local capacity through training and knowledge transfer.

Our approach not only addresses the urgent challenges of desertification and water scarcity but also sets a precedent for sustainable land management in arid regions worldwide. By 2025, we aim to demonstrate the feasibility and impact of this model, paving the way for broader adoption across similar environments globally. This innovation sprint exemplifies how emerging technologies and innovative practices can drive climate-smart agriculture, ensuring both environmental sustainability and economic prosperity in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions. This sprint is supported by an increased investment of $8.68 million USD, which will be allocated toward the development and deployment of climate-smart agroforestry systems, including the cost of solar-powered desalination infrastructure, planting materials, monitoring technologies, and local capacity-building initiatives.

With an investment of $7.9 million USD, this innovation sprint is driving 12 projects that promote climate-smart agriculture and improve food systems across Latin America and the Caribbean. These initiatives, taking place in 11 countries, focus on research and development to enhance climate resilience, reduce agricultural emissions, and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Many projects integrate cutting-edge technologies, including bioproducts, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, to optimize resource management, such as water and soil nutrients, thereby increasing efficiency and lowering emissions. At the same time, traditional knowledge from indigenous communities contributes sustainable practices that have been effective for generations, offering culturally relevant solutions well-suited to local ecosystems.

Watch Patrice Louvet, CEO & President of Ralph Lauren Corporation, share more about the mission behind the innovation sprint here.

Maine Shellfish Developers and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Research have spent six years developing a proprietary vertical recirculating aquaculture system and micro-algae feed formulations for on-land oyster cultivation, insulated from runoff, pollution, and climate risks. By combining food-safe industrial waste to produce micro-algae, renewable energy to drive pumps, and a recirculating aquaculture system, this system will be cost effective and net negative in comparison to protein production through poultry, beef, pork, and finfish farming. This sprint is investing $7.4 million USD from 2024-2026.

The Transforming Investments in African Rainfed Agriculture (TIARA) initiative is challenging the status-quo on rainfed agriculture with an evidence-based approach to unlock the knowledge, skills and behaviours that are necessary for investments in climate smart enhanced rainfed agriculture to happen at scale in Africa. Led by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR ICRAF), the TIARA project aims to mobilize $6.9 million USD through 2025 and build the case for sustainable funding mechanisms such as Payments for Ecological Services.

Climate change is a growing threat to food security, reducing crop yields and increasing vulnerability to pathogens and pests. Legumes are a critical source of nutrition for people, animals, and soils. 2Blades will exploit proprietary genomics tools and germplasm resources developed through an initial $35 million USD investment, with new investment of $6.6 million USD to economically scale gene discovery and accelerate deployment in legumes for Africa. 2Blades seeks partners for development and funding totaling $12.7 million USD to further scale efforts.

Watch Diana Horvath, President and co-founder of 2Blades, discuss the innovation sprint here. 

The Run Tian project is a transformative initiative to advance soil health in the Huang-Huai-Hai region of North China, demonstrating the agronomic and economic viability of reduced or no-till field management. Syngenta Group, The Nature Conservancy, and partners aspire to transition 800,000 hectares of Chinese farmland to sustainable practices by the end of 2023. The sprint commits over $5.27 million USD in investment: $3 million USD have been invested in the two work streams since 2020, and over $2 million USD are planned for further investment through 2025. 

Watch Daniel Vennard, CSO of Syngenta Group, discuss the innovation sprint here. 

Terraso is an open-source software platform designed to support smallholder farmers worldwide in making climate-smart, science-based land management decisions. By providing free, accessible tools for data collection, mapping, analysis, and sharing, Terraso addresses gaps in community-level responses to climate change. By delivering best-in-class tools and reliable data to smallholder farmers, climate resilience and local livelihoods will be dramatically improved for millions of people living in these communities worldwide. Tech Matters values this project at $5.19 million USD.

Watch Jim Fruchterman, Chief Executive Officer of Tech Matters, share more about the mission of the innovation sprint here.

Arable plans to invest $5 million USD to optimize nitrogen use in corn and potato crops through high-resolution spectral sensing, weather analysis, and remote sensing to reduce synthetic nitrogen use, increase productivity, and promote sustainable farming practices. The system includes five main components: in-field sensing, agronomic modeling, economic and risk components, user experience, and boots-on-the-ground people to drive adoption and understanding. The goal is to improve agricultural productivity and remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Agerpoint Capture is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered spatial intelligence app for smartphones and tablets that digitally measures and monitors crops and forests. Agerpoint is investing $5 million USD to make the app more broadly accessible on lower-cost devices by the end of 2025 and to advance machine learning analytical models. This expansion will further democratize access to digital plant health and growth metrics, particularly for smallholder farmers and landowners, providing better data transparency and traceability for climate-smart agriculture.

Enterprise Neurosystem is awarding $5 million USD of in-kind resources to AgroSpace, the winner of the AIM for Climate Grand Challenge: Leveraging the Power of AI and Machine Learning, to develop the project “Revolutionizing Remote Sensing for Food Security.” The prize from members of Enterprise Neurosystem includes a year of Kove Software Defined Memory (Kove:SDM™), Red Hat RHODS subscriptions, Equinix Bare Metal Infrastructure, AWS Cloud Credits, IBM Cloud Credits, and one-on-one access to the Enterprise Neurosystem experts to provide assistance on their Artificial Intelligence, data science, software, and hardware projects. As a result, AgroSpace developed its first digital agriculture product IrriSmart, which uses satellite data and analyses of weather patterns to measure soil moisture content and water consumption in plants, determining irrigation schedules for farms and regions. Leveraging data from NASA and the European Space Agency, IrriSmart helps farmers maximize their crop yield using minimal water.

Watch AIM for Climate AI Grand Challenge Winners, Italo Moletto and Tomás Acuña of Agro Space Chile, discuss the innovation sprint here.

Reducing the methane-intensity of milk is critical to achieving climate change goals and feeding a growing population. This sprint will reduce the methane-intensity of milk in Ethiopia by using climate finance to incentivize dairies to provide methane-reducing, climate smart products and services to their smallholder farmer suppliers. RTI International and partners will leverage $5 million USD of public and private sector support to develop and operationalize a scalable model suitable for smallholder farmers in developing countries.

Watch Paul Weisenfeld, Executive Vice President for International Development at RTI, discuss the innovation sprint here.

The Fortified Whole Grain Alliance has invested approximately $4.5 million USD to promote the production and consumption of fortified whole grain foods in low and middle-income countries, reducing the reliance on refined grains. This shift in consumption from refined to fortified whole grains addresses climate resilience, nutritional deficiencies, and environmental impact by diversifying and fortifying grains with essential micronutrients. Learn more about our mission and impact on our website, linked below.

Carbonwave is transforming the largest seaweed bloom on the planet, sargassum, from a source of Caribbean methane and ecosystem destruction into an agricultural yield enhancer, an award winning worldwide first seaweed-based cosmetic emulsifier, and a leather alternative. Millions of hectares can be treated, reduce nitrogen use, and avoid methane when sargassum rots. Carbonwave and partners are mobilizing $4.38 million USD to develop, demonstrate, and deploy their Sarga Agriscience extract to increase crop yields 4-12% for a 3-15 times return on investment for farmers. 

Netafim, Orbia’s Precision Agriculture business, is the world’s largest irrigation company and a global leader in precision agriculture solutions. As part of its commitment to advancing sustainable agricultural practices, Netafim’s innovation sprint focuses on accelerating the adoption of precision irrigation and its all-in-one digital operating system, GrowSphere™, for key U.S. crops, including alfalfa, corn, cotton, and wheat. This initiative aims to increase crop productivity, conserve water, reduce fertilizer use, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this mission, Netafim has committed to investing $4.2 million USD through 2025, with plans to expand into additional markets in the future. Netafim delivers innovative, tailor-made irrigation and fertigation solutions to millions of farmers, enabling smallholders and large-scale agricultural producers in over 100 countries to grow more with less™.

Paddy rice emissions due to flood duration vary significantly across regions and the inability to monitor emissions cost-effectively at scale and in real-time limits mitigation practices.  This sprint will integrate field-scale data, biogeochemical modeling, and satellite observations to develop the ability to measure CH4 emissions from rice fields directly from space. The sprint leverages existing investment totalling $4 million USD and seeks additional funding for analysis, ground-truth data collection, scenario-building exercises, livestockgre, and dissemination.

Locus Agriculture’s low-cost non-GMO biologicals cut enteric methane by 20-80% in university trials while showing significant animal health & productivity improvement. This reduction if realized globally is equivalent to 0.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e). The same platform inhibits methanogens and can potentially improve nutrient efficiency in rice. Locus has invested over $3.5 million USD in research and development and is looking for co-development/funding partners to finish development and deploy commercially at scale.

This innovation sprint aims to scale the NEORICE sustainable rice cultivation process across Vietnam and Southeast Asia, leveraging innovative technologies like the Professional Agriculture System (PAS). NEORICE integrates advanced organic farming techniques with digital solutions, reducing methane emissions, improving farmer incomes, and enhancing soil health. Total increased investment for this sprint from 2021-2025 is $3.1 million USD.

Watch Khoa Nguyen, Chief Executive Officer of AHA Agrochem, describe the NEORICE innovation sprint, here.

Our innovation sprint represents a transformative investment in agricultural technology. We aim to support the Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA) by leveraging digital innovations through cBrain's F2 platform to advance sustainable practices, enhance productivity, and foster a resilient agricultural ecosystem. To realize this vision, with a total investment of $3.03 million USD, we are committing over $1 million USD, with an additional $2 million USD allocated by the World Bank to further TCDA's digital journey throughout 2024/2025. In addition, the Danish Government contributed seed funding of $30,000 USD to support an initial discovery workshop, which will lay the foundation for the TCDA’s organizational setup and the pilot design of a registration workflow in one value chain. 

Through this sprint, we aim to showcase the F2 platform’s value, with the potential for a full rollout at the TCDA to cover the entire agency and its regional offices—from individual smallholder farmers to all actors within the value chain. The full implementation, which includes hosting, support, and maintenance over the next decade, is projected at $4 million USD.

Watch Niels Tanderup, Executive Director, New Markets, describe cBrain's 2024 innovation sprints here.

The Pathways to Dairy Net Zero (P2DNZ) is a program across the global dairy sector to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. P2DNZ has identified 10 emerging dairy countries as “Early Adopters” for the program that together represent >30% of global dairy greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The initiative will help transform the dairy sector in these countries to achieve major reductions in GHG emissions. PDNZ has already secured $3 million USD commitments and will attract additional funding from the Green Climate Fund and other donor groups to make the transition possible. 

With a $3 million USD initial investment, colleagues at the University of California Davis and Berkeley are leveraging their team’s interdisciplinary expertise to achieve a systems-level understanding of greenhouse gas fluxes in rice plants at the plant-microbe interface. They will carry out large scale phenotyping and genotyping approaches to develop new tools to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

This sprint focuses on climate-smart agriculture by reducing food loss, waste, and adapting to climate change. Ignitia will develop a database for artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insights, including climate risk scoring, and build strong strategic partnerships with food supply chain stakeholders for scale. With an investment of $3 million USD, the expected impact includes empowering 1 million individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa, promoting behavior change for sustainable farming, reducing yield losses by 20-25%, and cutting down CO2 emissions through efficient practices.

Watch Andrew Lala, CEO of ignitia, discuss the innovation sprint here. 

Access to climate-smart inputs, including drought-tolerant seed, is essential to the productivity of farmers threatened by climate change and the shifting rainfall patterns on which their lives and livelihoods depend. Agricultural small- and medium-sized enterprises (agriSMEs), including African seed companies, can sustainably improve access and availability of inputs to farmers, resulting in higher productivity and resilience. Pangea and its partners are raising $2.7 million USD to channel debt and equity into these agriSMEs so that they can accelerate distribution of seed and climate-smart inputs to farming communities.

This innovation sprint aims to accelerate the development of the buckthorn spread project, Al Nabaq-Délice, a product naturally sweetened with carob and without preservatives. With funding of $2.7 million USD, this program will focus on the integration of sustainable practices and expansion into the healthy products market. The sprint will take place over eight months, partnering with experts from the food and beverage sector to ensure impact and growth.

The yawning gender gap in African agricultural research and development and women farmers’ low uptake of climate innovations hinders Africa’s capacity to cope with climate change. This $2.5 million USD initiative will increase numbers and experiences of African women leading equitable climate solutions. Over the next two years, this initiative will build a pool of confident, capable African women equipped to lead climate research, enhancing their ability to influence policy changes for improved smallholders’ livelihoods.

Watch Dr. Susan Kaaria, Director of African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), highlight how their innovation sprint will empower women to adopt innovations in Africa here. 

East Precision Agriculture & Innovative Technology’s (EPAIT) innovation sprint establishes the first precision agriculture center in the UAE, focusing on integrating advanced technologies to enhance agricultural productivity sustainably. The program employs agrigenomics, which applies genomic tools in agriculture, to address climate change and improve crop and livestock resilience. Key methodologies include optimizing artificial photosynthesis to produce hydrogen for microbial growth, significantly increasing solar energy conversion efficiency compared to traditional plant photosynthesis. Using the bacterium Xanthobacter autotrophicus, known for carbon and nitrogen fixation, supports sustainable bioproduction. Genomics enables researchers to trace molecular variations across diverse conditions, enhancing understanding of gene evolution and boosting productivity in crops and livestock. Techniques, such as next-generation sequencing, facilitate the identification of beneficial genes, enabling gene editing (e.g., CRISPR/Cas9) for traits like drought and disease resistance. Outcomes will include improved crop health, increased farming productivity, and enhanced resilience to climate challenges through genetically optimized crops. Furthermore, the program focuses on developing bioproducts for stress protection and promoting biodiversity to secure food resources in harsher climates. In animal breeding, genomics accelerates the selection of desirable traits, while monitoring gut microbiomes can optimize animal health. Additionally, addressing antimicrobial resistance through genomic surveillance supports public health. The EPAIT sprint will leverage an increased investment of $2.3 million USD.

Watch Mariam Muse, Founder and CEO of East Precision Agriculture & Innovative Technology, describe more about the innovation sprint here.

The Brazilian Innovation Agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (FINEP) has dedicated $2 million USD to research and development for alternative protein innovation for the period 2023-25. Additionally, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), an innovation-oriented public company focusing on generating knowledge and technology for Brazilian agriculture and cattle-raising, is hosting three research projects totalling $240,000 to develop novel structuring technologies to produce whole-cut chicken meat analog products using native plant ingredients.

Watch Gus Guadagnini, CEO of The Good Food Institute Brazil, discuss the innovation sprint here.

The Sustainable Land Initiative is a novel means of rapidly identifying climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices on working lands, consistently quantifying the practices’ positive impact, and accelerating planning and implementation of those practices by removing barriers for small farmers to adopt CSA practices. Supported by an investment of $2.05 million USD, the Sustainable Land Initiative sprint will advance scaling of standard software that documents all practices, enabling qualified experts to support each landowner with technical assistance, grant funding, and implementation support within weeks of first meeting each farmer.

Watch Niels Tanderup, Executive Director, New Markets, describe cBrain's 2024 innovation sprints here.

This innovation sprint aims to significantly reduce food loss and waste (FLW) in at least seven countries in Africa – Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia – and to scale across Africa and the globe as interest, resources, and capacities allow. The sprint will leverage private sector investment and public-private partnerships in food loss and waste reduction to scale adoption of technologies and climate-smart practices. By addressing critical points of food loss and waste in the food supply chain, the sprint aims to enhance food security, create jobs and work opportunities, improve farmer incomes, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with food loss and waste. Key interventions include capacity building for farmers and agribusinesses, facilitating access to finance for climate-friendly technologies, and creating an enabling policy environment to support sustainable practices.

The first phase sprint, over a 2-year period, will enable coalition partners to (1) complete foundational analytics, (2) hold business roundtables, (3) refine the model, and (4) learn from initial experiences in catalyzing investment to scale up food loss and waste reduction strategies in the 7 countries. A second phase will then scale this program in terms of number of countries engaged, value chains prioritized, and private investment leveraged, based on lessons learned and most effective interventions. The sprint will invest a minimum of $2 million USD in aggregate self-financed funding from the key implementing partners. This sprint will then seek to mobilize and leverage a total of $30 million in private sector investments to support the adoption of climate-smart technologies and practices among farmers and agribusinesses.

Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk is committed to empowering food system actors with environmental footprinting standards, technical tools, specialized data and expert insights needed to contribute to a more sustainable agri-food system. Recognizing a need for standardization of footprint calculations and background data for the U.S., we aim to develop a U.S. food ingredient environmental footprint database. With an investment of $1.65 million USD, we facilitate a multistakeholder process to define the scope, governance, and business model for the development of the database.

Environmental Defense Fund and partners launched an innovation sprint to drive investment in better animal health and climate outcomes. With initial investments of nearly $1.5 million USD, the sprint will spur additional large investments and action in 2025. This is a first-of-its-kind global campaign that brings together philanthropies, the public and private sectors, and scientists to align financing, accelerate research, and ramp up on-the-ground farmer supports to deliver animal health improvements that also reduce methane emissions from livestock systems, lower food waste, and enhance nutritional security and public health for smallholders and pastoralists worldwide.

Watch Angela Churie Kallhauge, Executive Vice President, Impact, at Environmental Defense Fund, describe the innovation sprint here.

Autoponics is driving the future of agriculture with sustainable hydroponic and aquaponic systems designed to address water scarcity and improve food security. By integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), our solar-powered systems reduce water use by up to 70% and increase crop yields by 30%. Focused on empowering smallholder farmers in Africa, our innovation sprint aims to deploy 50 systems by December 2025, delivering tangible climate-smart solutions to feed the future. Autoponics and Afriquantrix will increase investment by a total of approximately $1.5 million USD over the sprint period.

Livestock producers in the Middle East contribute to 12% of the region’s greenhouse gas emissions while producing up to 40% less yield per animal compared to leading agricultural nations. Greener Herd’s livestock management app aims to provide 26 million MENA livestock producers with the data and know-how to boost yields, increase animal welfare, and reduce methane emissions by between 30-40% in the process. The sprint is raising $1.3 million USD for product development, data collection, and deployment.

FAIRR Initiative and the Good Food Institute (GFI), with several partners including Breakthrough Institute, have developed a standardized environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework for the alternative protein industry. Alternative proteins generate lower emissions and use less land and water than conventionally produced animal proteins. Robust ESG measurement tools will enable companies to demonstrate to investors and the market the climate benefits of alternative proteins and allow for comparability between meat-based and alternative protein products and portfolios. Total expected investment of $1.27 million over 5 years.

Leveraging $1.2 million USD, Fondwa University, farmers, and nuns will help Father Joseph Network achieve ecosystem restoration and agroforestry on 55 square miles of mountain watershed. Help harvest food and carbon credits, and stop global warming, by building a new New World together.

The Jodoor innovation sprint seeks to revolutionize sustainable agriculture in Africa and the Middle East through the deployment of hydroponic farming systems. Our mission is to empower local communities, particularly smallholder farmers, to adopt climate-resilient farming techniques by providing affordable, turnkey hydroponic farms fabricated locally. These systems minimize water and nutrient consumption while maximizing yield, making them ideal for regions prone to water scarcity and climate change. We aim to scale up production, install systems across several pilot farms, and offer comprehensive e-learning programs to train farmers in these technologies. By leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) systems to monitor and optimize farm conditions, we ensure precision farming and reduced resource waste, aligning with global climate goals. This sprint will demonstrate the viability of hydroponic farms as a sustainable solution for boosting food security while contributing to climate adaptation and mitigation. We aim to increase investment to $1.2 million USD over the course of this sprint through partnerships with local manufacturers, private investors, and reinvestment of profits from our turnkey farm systems.

Learn more about Jodoor's mission and technology here.

The HYD-TEP-SA innovation sprint aims to develop a cutting-edge wastewater treatment system that integrates hydroponics, direct sand filtration, and protozoa-enhanced treatment. This initiative, hosted at the University Mohammed VI Polytechnic, focuses on enhancing agricultural productivity and water quality for sustainable practices. With a budget of $1 million USD, the project will demonstrate the system's efficiency in pollutant removal and its scalability for diverse agricultural applications.

Watch Ezzouhra ElMaaiden, Scientist at University Mohammed VI Polytechnic, describe the HYD-TEP-SA innovation sprint here.

This innovation sprint aims to catalyze the widespread adoption of Bio Seed and Bio Shot, groundbreaking biotech solutions for sustainable agriculture, among 50,000 smallholder farmers across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central America by the end of 2025. By combining training, infrastructure improvements, and local partnerships, this Sprint will create a sustainable ecosystem for the adoption of climate-smart agricultural technologies with an aggregated investment of $995,000 USD between Ag Biotech, Inc., and partner organizations.

Watch Tristan Hudak, Director of International Development at Ag Biotech, Inc., describe the innovation sprint here.

LifeBox is tech-enabled and ready-made for every need from water pumping for irrigation, water desalination, or electricity for home appliances. Using only solar power, LifeBox is a customizable solution for climate-smart agriculture and farming. In executing this sprint, NoorNation will leverage a total increased investment of $900,000 USD, with $350,000 USD in investments from venture capitalists, grants, and accelerator programs complemented by $550,000 USD in revenue generated from LifeBox sales.

This initiative utilizes the PlantVillage+ platform to implement a comprehensive, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven 7-step plan that integrates climate adaptation and mitigation, connecting farmers in the Global South to biochar carbon markets. Steps 1-6, Adaptation, focuses on empowering farmers with knowledge from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) SERVIR’s data platform and other sources. It provides essential inputs, crop protection solutions, improved storage systems, and enhanced access to markets, equipping farmers to better adapt to climate challenges. Step 7, Mitigation, converts crops that are not fully consumed into durable carbon in the form of biochar. This process not only sequesters carbon but also reduces methane and nitrous oxide emissions. By combining biochar with manure and utilizing biochar as fertilizer, this project further diminishes nitrous oxide emissions from the soil. Partners include Carboneers and Biochar Life, both of whom have pioneered cash payments to farmers for capturing and storing carbon through biochar. Additionally, this project will leverage Terraspect’s advanced digital payment systems to ensure farmers receive direct payments for their carbon storage efforts. Finally, it will employ PlantVillage's Biochar App alongside Terraspect’s social impact calculator to accurately track carbon drawdown, ensure transparency in payments to farmers, and assess our impact on Sustainable Development Goals. This sprint is supported by a $500,000 USD investment, with gratitude to the Hopper-Dean Foundation.

Mukono District Farmers’ Association will conduct climate-smart agriculture in Mukono District through training farmers in fifteen sub-counties for two years with the invested funds of $500,000 USD. The goal of this innovation sprint is to reach 10,000 rural farmers and to promote gender equity while increasing farmers' capacity for climate change resilience.

Watch James Katamba, Coordinator of Mukono District Farmers' Association Ltd., share more about the mission behind the innovation sprint here.

SolarAgroBot 2.0 is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, solar-driven agricultural robot designed to optimize water and nutrient management in arid regions. By monitoring crops in real-time and applying precision irrigation, it reduces water waste and enhances crop productivity. The project will deploy 500 units in Morocco over the next two years with a projected investment of $475,000 USD.

Food waste causes an estimated 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce food waste, California strawberry growers and three large retailers have partnered with The Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment to identify where and why food is wasted in the fresh strawberry supply chain and pilot innovative solutions to mitigate food waste hotspots. This sprint exceeded the original investment to $400,000 USD, with the aim to build out the pilot recommendations.

Watch Pete Pearson, Global Initiative Lead of Food Circularity for World Wildlife Fund, discuss the innovation sprint here.

Greenfield Robotics’ Weedbots eliminate weeds autonomously, reducing or even eliminating herbicide use. The platform now includes a cover crop attachment that improves soil health and boosts yields by planting cover crops during cash crop growth. Tested in Kansas, it ensures effective planting in dry climates, with limited commercial rollout planned for 2025/2026. Initial investment for development is $300,000 USD.

Watch Clint Brauer, Founder of Greenfield Robotics, describe the innovation sprint here.

PGPR Technologies' innovation sprint transforms organic waste into sustainable biofertilizers for African farmers. By leveraging cutting-edge biotechnology, the sprint develops ChitoGreen, a shrimp-waste-based biostimulant, and BaioLizer, a biofertilizer derived from dairy waste. With a $240,000 USD investment, this initiative promotes eco-friendly, cost-effective farming solutions that enhance soil fertility and reduce chemical input reliance, benefiting smallholder farmers across Africa.

AiQlim Intelligence is launching an innovation sprint to enhance real-time climate adaptation tools for global agriculture. This 18–24-month project will develop artificial intelligence (AI)- and machine learning- powered climate forecasting systems tailored to various agricultural sectors. With secured funding of $150,000 USD from the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development and seeking an additional $1 million USD, AiQlim aims to expand its services globally, improving resource efficiency and increasing crop yields.

U.S.-based Organigogo, Inc. has embarked on a year-long innovation sprint with the goal of establishing collaboration-driven, international organic aquaculture hubs. These hubs, acting as centers of excellence, will empower smallholder farmers globally to transition from traditional methods towards climate-positive, transparent organic fish production. Using innovative technology, this project aims to create a robust and efficient organic aquaculture network beginning in Mexico, with plans for international expansion. To date, Organigogo has invested over $2.6 million USD, with an allocated $120,000 USD for 2025, and is actively seeking additional funding to broaden our global impact.

The DeepLeaf innovation sprint aims to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability through advanced plant disease detection technologies. Our solution leverages artificial intelligence-driven imaging and machine learning models to identify and manage plant diseases in real-time, reducing crop losses and promoting efficient farming practices. By integrating high-resolution RGB and infrared cameras with an intuitive mobile app, this project provides farmers with actionable insights and early warnings about plant health issues. The sprint will focus on refining and expanding this technology to cover a broader range of crops and environmental conditions. Our approach involves collaborating with key agricultural partners and stakeholders to test and optimize the system in real-world scenarios, ensuring its effectiveness and scalability. The ultimate goal is to support smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries by improving their crop yields and resilience to climate change while reducing reliance on harmful pesticides. Since 2020, DeepLeaf has invested a total of $105,000 USD. This investment reflects our commitment to scaling our technology and expanding our impact in the agricultural sector.

The Eco-Revolution project aims to tackle environmental and agricultural challenges in Morocco's arid regions using innovative microalgae technology. It will convert wastewater into valuable resources, addressing water management and livestock nutrition. With current increased investment of $100,000 USD, this sprint is seeking $2 million USD for an R&D pilot by 2025 and $200 million USD for industrialization, targeting 20 hectares of microalgae production over five years. The project aims to produce 120,000 m3/hectare of purified water and 1,000 tons/hectare of high-quality animal feed annually while sequestering 2,000 tons of CO2 each year.

AgroGo is launching an innovation sprint to develop a smart irrigation system aimed at smallholder farmers in Morocco and other low- and middle-income countries. Leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) technology, this system will monitor soil moisture, weather, and crop health in real time, improving water efficiency by 30% and boosting yields by 20%. The AgroGo sprint is supported by an investment of $40,000 USD.

BeeSmart is an innovative beehive monitoring system designed to enhance the sustainability and productivity of apiculture through advanced Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and data analytics. This solution aims to develop and deploy HiveSensor, a comprehensive monitoring device that tracks the critical environmental parameters within the hive, such as temperature, humidity, and bee activity. The data collected will be analyzed to provide real-time insights and predictive analytics to prevent colony collapse disorder (CCD) and optimize honey production. By utilizing this technology, beekeepers can proactively manage their hives, reduce losses, and contribute to the preservation of biodiversity. The total increased investment for this sprint is $37,000 USD, excluding future projected investments.

Farmers are the cornerstone of the food supply chain, which is why this innovation sprint is partnering with coffee farmers in Kenya and the Cocoa Farmer Association of Nigeria to digitize their operations. This empowers farmers to become active participants in the supply chain, increase their incomes, and adopt climate-friendly practices. Through this sprint AGNimble has invested $35,000 USD and is committed to increasing our investment throughout 2025. This sprint seeks partners to join us to continue to expand this digital agricultural transformation project.

Very Low Power Autonomous Electro Valves is a patented breakthrough invention that will radically change the manufacturing process of electro valves, which will revolutionize the fields of application of electro valves. This invention gives rise to a new generation of very low-power autonomous electro valves regardless of their size, allowing irrigation, automated water distribution for good water management, and energy efficiency. Thanks to the innovative triggering mode of this new generation of very low power electro valves, the following characteristics result: 1) control of several electro valves with a very low power of 0.1W; 2) energy savings of up to 90% of the energy consumed by an electro valve equivalent; and 3) autonomous function using a mini solar panel to install it anywhere, unlike conventional electro valves that require an electrical connection. The EAU RO VANNE electro valves can be controlled remotely via a mobile app. Regardless of the length of time that elapses between opening and closing, energy consumption remains low, which is different to electro valves currently on the market. Additionally, across a range EAU RO VANNE electro valve sizes, power, energy consumption, and the small quantity of copper (5g) used remain unchanged. The cost of this new generation of electro valves will be affordable, allowing even smallholders farmers to benefit from its advantages to improve his agricultural productivity while reducing energy use and water consumption. This sprint is supported by increased investment of $21,000 USD from grants and prizes. We seek $4 million USD in additional funding to advance manufacturing, adoption, and scaling of our innovative climate-smart technology.

Al Hariss by Agrisolutions is an artificial intelligence-powered solution aimed at early disease detection in crops, reducing losses and environmental impact. Currently in the testing phase in Morocco’s Souss region, it provides real-time data to farmers, helping improve agricultural productivity. Our technology boosts crop yields, lowers pesticide use, and reduces waste, offering farmers potential cost savings of 15-20%. Leveraging increased investment of $19,000 USD, we aim to expand the solution across Morocco’s agricultural sectors for broader impact.

Watch Hind Sahir, Co-Founder of Agrisolutions, share more about the innovation sprint here.

Paddy rice emissions account for 12% of global anthropogenic methane emissions and use 30% of global fresh water. By 2050, climate change will decrease rice production by 10% when the population will need 70% more food. With half of the world consuming rice, a nutrient light grain, nutrition is challenged too. This sprint will develop a proof of concept for a rice alternative that is superior in nutrition, produces no methane and uses 87% less water. We estimate that by 2040 we should be able to mitigate 0.1GT of CO2 using our method. The sprint leverages existing funding totaling $10,000 USD and seeks additional funding for further development and scale-up operations.

Watch Sowmya Purushothaman, Founder of Good Grainary, describe the Innovation Sprint here.

Moukfi is an innovative agency designed to address the critical labor challenges faced by farmers in Morocco. By acting as an intermediary, Moukfi bridges the gap between farmers and the available workforce, ensuring that both parties benefit from fair and equitable working conditions. Our agency targets two main groups: farmers of any production type or farm size and physically capable workers over 18 years old. We aim to streamline the hiring process, providing farmers with reliable and skilled workers while also safeguarding the rights of the laborers through transparent and ethical practices. Our approach includes creating a digital platform where farmers can post job openings, and workers can apply directly, ensuring quick and efficient matching. We also plan to offer training programs for workers to enhance their skills, making them more valuable assets to the agricultural industry. By focusing on both efficiency and fairness, Moukfi seeks to increase agricultural productivity while supporting the well-being and rights of the workforce. The Moukfi innovation sprint is supported by $6,900 USD.

The Arbutus Berry Delights innovation sprint aims to highlight and protect the Arbutus, a wild fruit tree that grows in mountainous regions, particularly in the western Mediterranean basin. Our goal is to take local action to protect the tree from deforestation and to genetically improve its seeds so that they become more resistant to climate change, while also increasing its productivity. The Arbutus berry is a small red fruit that is extremely beneficial for health due to its high Vitamin C content and pectin, which aids digestion and can also be used as a natural gelling agent. To start, in the first phase, we will focus on adding value by transforming the fruit into jam and marketing it to raise awareness of its benefits and importance. We believe that the Arbutus tree can follow the same path as the Argan tree, and we also believe that the Arbutus berry can enter the red fruit market due to its health benefits and delicious taste. With initial self-financed increased investment of $600 USD since 2020, this sprint has focused on market research and data gathering for the project's feasibility. Arbutus seeks an additional investment of $196,000 USD for factory rental, processing equipment, and research (including genetic improvement of seeds and installations for testing new cultivation techniques).

Our innovation sprint aims to revolutionize the Moroccan caper industry by promoting sustainable cultivation and increasing global market penetration. By partnering with local farmers, MOCAP will provide them with the tools and knowledge to maximize their yields, while also exploring new markets and product variations. MOCAP has invested $250 USD, and seeks to raise $250,000 USD, to purchase a year-round supply of capers, develop innovative product lines, and launch a targeted marketing campaign. Our goal is to sell 3,000 units within the first year and establish long-term partnerships with Moroccan farmers. This project will not only boost the local economy but also contribute to sustainable agriculture. Capers are drought-resistant and require minimal resources, making them a perfect fit for Morocco's climate. By supporting caper farmers, we are helping to advance agroforestry, preserve the environment, and create a more resilient food system.