Are IP And AgTech Consulting Poised To Help Address Food Supply Issues? Enter AgriFORCE

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Food prices soared more than 20% higher in February than where they were the same month last year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) global food price index.

Along with rising inflation, food prices are exacerbating an existing difficulty that’s making basic necessities significantly costlier for many consumers.

In an effort to advance agricultural solutions that address challenges such as food security and climate change, AgriFORCE Growing Systems Ltd. AGRI, a Canadian agtech company, believes it is uniquely positioned to advance its growing portfolio of agtech solutions and production knowledge to equip growers with the sustainable, cutting-edge knowledge and technologies they need to ramp up production and stabilize food supplies for consumers worldwide.

The Russian Invasion Is Worsening The Food Crisis

While that February surge was led by increasing vegetable oil and dairy prices, the data doesn’t include the impacts of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. The two countries account for about 29% of global wheat exports and 12% of total food calories. The intensifying conflict is likely to put a serious dent in the availability of wheat and other essential food crops, driving food prices even higher in the coming months.  

Some analysts anticipate the invasion is likely to be drawn out forcing a supply chain still recovering from pandemic disruptions to contend with the uncertainty and upheaval of an insurgency war in the heart of some of the world’s most important wheat-producing regions.

Agtech Solutions Might Provide Fast, Sustainable Solutions To Rising Food Prices

With food prices soaring and the Russian invasion looking more and more like it will be a protracted conflict, governments and agricultural industry leaders are reportedly looking for alternatives and innovations that could help slow inflation by covering the shortage.

Five United Nations agencies collaborated on a report last summer about the already troubling food crisis, citing six of the most promising solutions for addressing that global crisis. Among the top solutions were making food systems more climate-resilient, shortening supply chains with urban agricultural solutions and making agriculture more resource-efficient.

As the emerging food crisis dials up the pressure on the existing need to make food systems more sustainable and more reliable, investors poured a record $5 billion in funding for agtech companies. In the first two months of this year, agtech investments exceeded $1 billion.

In January, Walmart Inc. WMT participated in a $400 million Series E funding round for vertical farming startup Plenty. Meanwhile, companies like Bayer AG BAYRY have poured millions into in-house agtech research and development (R&D) to help tackle the food crisis.

AgriFORCE Acquiring Two Leading European Agriculture Companies, Bringing Decades of Expertise to North America 

Founded in 2017, AgriFORCE has grown in the past few years using what it says is a strategy of R & D, and intellectual property (IP) acquisitions to build a portfolio of proprietary agtech solutions that could help farmers and agricultural facilities of all sizes improve crop yield, decrease resource use and shorten supply chains.

The agtech company’s GrowHouses feature a proprietary indoor growing environment that it reports can fully optimize a plant’s environment to dramatically improve  yield with an emphasis on high-value crops — all while providing the convenience of an indoor facility that can be built anywhere. 

“Our facility design offers increased energy efficiency and growing area to realize a sustainable approach, ” AgriFORCE President Troy McClellan said in a statement about the patent-pending growing system. The structure is meant to eliminate many of the inefficiencies in traditional greenhouse designs, including structural columns and beams that typically block light and reduce the total available growing area.

Last month, AgriFORCE announced an agreement to acquire Delphy Groep BV, a Netherlands-based agtech consulting firm that could help AgriFORCE accelerate plans for deploying these innovative GrowHouses worldwide. This month, the company also announced a binding LOI with Deroose Plants NV, one of the world’s largest tissue culture propagation companies. 

“We expect the combined company will emerge as a global player with top-tier R&D capabilities, a more diverse product pipeline, increased IP development capabilities and a broader footprint,” AgriFORCE CEO Ingo Mueller said in a statement on the acquisition. 

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.