Olam speed innovation to address global food security – Nigerian Frank News

Olam International, in collaboration with Agropolis Fondation, is on the hunt for ground- breaking clinical research that can provide transformational impacts within international farming and win a $75,000 grant to support development and implementation.

Unlike other research awards, the Olam Reward for Development in Food Security requires clear proof of potential short-term effect on food accessibility, affordability, adequacy, and availability.

The 4th edition of the biennial Reward follows the recent warning from the UN World Food Program that the COVID-19 pandemic will double the variety of individuals suffering severe hunger by the end of 2020i, bringing food security securely into the world’s spotlight.

Sunny Verghese, Co-founder and group CEO at Olam said: “At a time when the world faces a potential increase in food insecurity from the coronavirus crisis, with vulnerable parts of the developing world, especially in Africa, many at danger, the new clinical insights and methods being developed by research teams around the world are more substantial than ever. The Olam Prize aims to support advancement innovations so that together we can re- picture agriculture for higher food security.”

The winner of the previous Prize was a pioneering mapping approach that is reimagining subsistence farming in Ethiopia, co-ordinated by Dr Tomaso Ceccarelli of Wageningen Environmental Research and Dr Elias Eyasu Fantahun of Addis Ababa University.

Innovation Mapping for Food Security (IM4FS)ii, is supporting Ethiopia’s REALISE program to provide smallholder farmers a ‘finest fit’ for what to grow, where and how, with the goal of enhancing performance in food insecure areas.
Commenting on what the financing has actually meant to the application of their research study, Dr Ceccarelli said: “The financing from the Olam Reward has actually enabled us to begin scaling up our technique and shift our focus from locations of high potential agriculture, to the food insecure and drought susceptible areas of Ethiopia. Specifically, the funding is being applied to 4 essential areas: engaging regional and regional coordinators, in-situ information collection on bio-physical and socio-economic conditions, establishing the GIS-based tool behind IM4FS, and application of site-specific crop suggestions based on the research study fed into and info generated by the tool.
“With the unexpected break out of COVID-19, we’re also evaluating with our partners how IM4FS can support more instant and immediate food security requires for farmers in the middle of the pandemic. This would consist of preparation effective seed, fertiliser and other input circulation to farmers based on needs assessments.”
Meanwhile, since invoice of the 2017 Prize financing, the heat-tolerant wheat ranges established by Dr. Filippo Bassi of ICARDA, are now reputable in Senegal and Mauritania and have been successfully cultivated for the very first time by farmers in Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and the Republic of the Gambia.
“In spite of severe weather condition events Africa, and the interruption triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa, I more than happy to state that the activities enabled by the Olam Reward are advancing at complete steam. Olam’s mill is Dakar is leading a collaboration with other regional millers to provide a perfect market for farmers to offer their new grain and with the expansion of heat tolerant wheat now consisted of as a tactical method in the Adaptation of African Farming (a joint initiative by African Ministries of Farming), we can reach a lot more farmers.
“Certainly, the Olam Prize, and the interaction campaign that followed, has genuinely helped promote making use of this technology and get farmers interested. Considering that the preliminary news release, ICARDA has actually been contacted nearly weekly to supply seeds to various farmers and clinical organisations around the world. The true power of the Olam Reward goes well beyond individual acknowledgment to actually assisting people learn and release brand-new progressive ideas for sustainable agriculture.”
Applications are invited from academic or research study organizations, civil societies and the private sector, and can concentrate on any region, environment, crop or part of the agricultural supply chain.
Submissions need to be made here through the Agropolis website. The due date for application submissions is 23:59 CET (France) 11 January 2021. Applications got prior to 30 November 2020 will be considered for publicity opportunities on Olam’s corporate channels.

The 2021 Reward will be judged by an independent jury of professionals and granted in combination with the Agropolis Louis Malassis International Scientific Prizes for Agriculture and Food and SHIFT Reward by Biovision Structure.