A Zoom event to expore the opportunities and challenges of innovation implementation experienced by farmers and/or consumers under COVID-19 circumstances and disruptions and the role for research organizations to facilitate implementation and scaling of these innovations in the region.

Date: Thursday, 30 April 2020

Time: 18:00 (UTC+8)

WorldFish’s Egyptian colleagues, Ahmed Nasr Allah and Nabil Ibrahim, in partnership with FAO on some of the innovative success stories, which include :

  • AHMINI (Tunisia) has developed a mobile phone App, which made it easier for women farmers and their families to access social security benefits and health insurance. 

  • ATTAISSIR (Morocco), digital platform designed by COSUMAR, is a solution devised for accelerating performance and simplifying daily work of the farmers. Composed of a digital on-line management system, monitoring agricultural operations from sowing to the transportation of products to sugar refineries in real-time by using agricultural machines connected by GPS. In December 2018, the system was deployed for 80,000 farmers in the 5 sugar-producing areas of Morocco, the distributors and service providers.

  • BASHAEIR Agribusiness Digital Networks (Egypt), with over 140,000 subscribers and followers, directly links farmers to markets and suppliers.

  • EDAMA (Saudi Arabia) recycles organic waste into products designed to improve the water-holding capacity and fertility of sandy soils; and supply the country's booming hydroponics and indoor farming sectors. 

  • FreshSource (Egypt) is the region’s first B2B platform for agri-goods, connecting farms to businesses and providing last-mile solutions, and bridging gaps in food security, tackling food loss and empowering farmers by connecting them to modern markets. Since Jan 2019 they have impacted the lives of 1,500 smallholder farmers and agri-vendors. The company reduces food loss, through cold chain systems.

  • ICARDA Arabian Peninsula Program (APRP), using soilless culture techniques in greenhouses raised smallholders' incomes by 150 to 240 in percentage. Soilless culture techniques offer (a) supply of water and nutrients optimum for plant growth, (b) minimal water loss by evaporation, due to the narrow width of the growing channels, and (c) elimination of drainage water loss.

  • SHEP (JICA-Japan, Egypt, Palestine) The Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion approach has helped smallholders raise their incomes by becoming more market-oriented and treating farming as a business.  In the SHEP Approach, farmers visit adjacent markets, conduct market survey, and made crop calendar or business plan according to market needs. 

  • WorldFish (Egypt) demonstrated how raising genetically improved tilapia in climate-smart ponds helps meet the growing demand for fish as a high-quality source of protein.