Planting the Future: How a Nigerian University is Tackling Food Insecurity with Agricultural Innovation

"If I continued as a cardiologist, maybe I would save 2,000 or 3,000 lives over the next 30 years, But if I focus on this, I have the potential to save billions of human lives and trillions of animal lives," explains Uma Valeti a cardiologist turned clean meat founder and engineer. Valeti, along with a team of similarly minded colleagues are looking to market the first ever meat that doesn't come from killing animals.

Could clean meat be the solution for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, feeding an ever-growing human population and saving water? A growing number of food innovators think so, as do investors such as Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Although too expensive to hit the market immediately, production is in the works to create clean meat from animal cells that may be better for human health and the health of the environment.

By using new technology and shared knowledge, the Dutch have become global leaders in agricultural innovation and solutions to fight famine. Work being done at Wageningen University & Research has allowed farmers in the Netherlands to grow crops year-round and in all kinds of weather, while eliminating the use of chemical pesticides and reducing the dependence on water by as much as 90 percent at some farms. Exporting these techniques to other countries has its challenges, but international graduate students are working to implement these programs in their home regions to help people experiencing hunger.

Three biointensive mini-farms in the US are teaching small-scale farmers from throughout the world how to grow more food through sustainable practices that focus on using less water and land. After bringing these farmers onto the US farms to learn the methods through a hands-on approach, the farmers then return to their home countries to implement and encourage the biointensive practices.

Several organizations, researchers, and area farmers alike are working to get local farmers back on track after catastrophic flooding in the summer of 2022 destroyed many farmers’ crops, tools, and homes by focusing on shifting toward more climate-resilient farming practices and providing resources like compost deliveries to help replenish soil.

Malawian farmers have been hit hard by climate change over the last two farming seasons, and have thus seen a drop in agricultural production. To combat these losses, agriculture experts have begun implementing climate-smart farming practices that allow them to "sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience (adaptation), reduce greenhouse gas emissions where possible, and help with achievement of national food security and development goals" according to the Food and Agricultural Organization.

Kashmiri farmers are using traditional farming techniques in degraded wetlands to revive lotus stem cultivation. One farmer’s restored two-hectare plot produced 12 quintals of lotus stem in the first season, earning approximately $1,600. By 2023, at least 15 households across three villages had successfully restored their own plots using the same methods. Farmers converting waterlogged fields now earn between $1,600-$2,200 per hectare per season.

Community-led urban farms in Jakarta empower residents to transform underused city spaces like alleyways and campus grounds into productive local food sources. These initiatives often blend traditional gardening with community organizing, educational outreach, and sometimes smart technology or agricultural research to improve food access, enhance green space, and foster local resilience.

Farmers living near the coast in India are turning to rooftop farming as cyclones lead to flooding that makes agricultural fields unusable. The Association for Social and Humanitarian Action taught local women how to grow food in tubs or sacks with compost, and those farmers trained others.

A nonprofit in India focused on supporting farmers, Urmul Seemant Samiti, is helping pastoralists transition to using hydroponics to grow fodder for their livestock amid increasing droughts. Alongside hydroponic fodder startup Hydrogreens, the organization trains pastoralists to use sprinkler systems to create fog that waters their indoor crops.