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Bahrain’s ‘agri-entrepreneurs’ dream of growing more local produce and fostering healthy, sustainable living can come to fruition through a North East and North Africa (NENA) regional competition.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation Investment and Technology Promotion Office (Unido ITPO), through its Arab International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Investment in Bahrain, has partnered with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation to launch the AgriNation Startup Cup in Bahrain and across the region.
“Such competitions facilitate the development of new technologies, yet provide a global platform for Bahraini ‘agropreneurs’ to start and grow,” said a Unido ITPO repre-sentative.
“The AgriNation Startup Cup is showing how young people in Bahrain and across the region are finding ways to produce more food with less resources, capture more value locally through downstream agrifood products and services, and promote more healthy, safe and environmentally sustainable consumption. This is all while safeguarding the livelihoods of small producers, including women and vulnerable groups, and creating more decent jobs in rural areas.”
For the uninitiated, agrifood is the business of producing food agriculturally as opposed to through hunting, fishing, gathering and so on. The non-profit non-governmental organisation Industry Disruptors Game Changers (IDGC), platform Future Agro Challenge and entrepreneurship support ecosystem Berytech have also collaborated for the contest, which aims to support youth-led start-ups addressing key agrifood challenges and transforming systems to be more sustainable, equitable, nutritious and resilient.
Over the course of 2019, 127.2 million people were not able to access sufficient food, and hunger in the Arab region has been rising since 2014. The number of undernourished people reached 69m in 2020.
By 2020, unemployment reached 26 per cent among youth and 40pc among young women in the NENA region. Food loss and waste in the region, is estimated at up to 250kg per person and worth more than $60 billion annually.
According to FAO, agriculture and food systems have come under intense pressure over the decade due to a growing demand and declining productivity caused by climate change, natural resource degradation and rising prices of fertilisers and seeds.
Economic disruptions caused by Covid-19 and conflicts in different countries have further complicated the situation, making food imports more expensive and leading to rising insecurity as well as poverty among small producers and agriculture dependent households.
“Youth have a central role to play in making food healthier, safer, cleaner and accessible for all across the region,” said FAO regional programme leader Jean-Marc Faurès. “They need to be empowered through access to innovation and entrepreneurship so that they can contribute actively to address the region’s many food challenges.”
The competition is open to entrepreneurs aged 35 and under, with early-stage start-ups in the field of agrifood and rural development. The 10 winning start-ups will benefit from a customised incubation and mentoring programme including support for product testing and market research as well as linkages to new market opportunities, partnerships and funding sources.
For details, visit https://agrination.io/ and the deadline to apply is Saturday (August 27).
