Technology

The Zambezi River Basin project is expected to benefit millions through advancements in agriculture, fisheries, and dam operations. (Image source: AfDB)

With the aim of bolstering environmental sustainability and resilience across Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has secured more than US$18mn in funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for two major projects 

The first project, 'Strengthening Zambezi River Basin Management towards Climate Resilience and Ecosystem Health,' which has been allocated US$10.57mn aims to improve the collaborative management of water, energy, food, and environmental resources within the Zambezi River Basin, which spans eight southern African countries: Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. 

The second project, the 'Global Electronics Management (GEM) programme (Horn of Africa Regional Child Project),' has received US$7.83mn to address the growing challenge of electronic waste (e-waste) in Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia. The project aims to significantly reduce e-waste generation and increase circularity in the electronics sector of developing countries.

"Through these projects, the African Development Bank continues to lead the way in promoting environmental sustainability and resilience, driving positive change for both people and the planet," stated the director of Climate Change and Green Growth at the AfDB, Anthony Nyong. "Over the years, we have also increased our interventions on issues related to chemicals and waste across the African continent."

The funding was approved by the GEF during its 67th Council meetings held from 17-20 June in Washington DC.

New Holland aims to bring autonomous solutions across all segments it serves, particularly in the speciality crop market. (Image source: CNH)

New Holland recently announced its multi-phase partnership with leading autonomous technology company, Bluewhite to enable the collaboration on distribution, manufacturing and integration of Bluewhite's autonomous solutions for New Holland tractors, thus enabling them to operate fully autonomously in orchards and vineyards among other specialty crop operations

Formerly known as Blue White Robotics, Bluewhite brings sustainable autonomous innovation to permanent crop growers worldwide, thus driving the growth of resilient farms. Using its AI-driven autonomous farm solution, the company leverages AI, sensor fusion, advanced vehicle integration and precision implements control to help growers manage their fleets and data.

New Holland aims to bring autonomous solutions across all segments it serves, particularly in the speciality crop market. Bluewhite's unique technology and proven capabilities in orchards and vineyards helps New Holland customers address immediate challenges, such as labor shortages and rising operational costs in the specialty crop market. Through a combination of savings in inputs, labour and maintenance costs, the technology has been successful in reducing operational costs by up to 85% depending on the specific use case.

“We’re incredibly excited about collaborating with CNH and New Holland to accelerate the adoption of autonomous technologies in the field that not only improve productivity and profitability for growers but also promote safe and sustainable methods of producing food,” said CEO of Bluewhite, Ben Alfi. “Our long-term partnership with CNH and New Holland combining leading autonomous technology with the best tractors and harvesters in the orchards and vineyards sector is a milestone in achieving our mission of making cutting-edge innovation accessible to the agriculture sector."

DSM-firmenich and BESTMIX software, through their partnership, unlock the value of sustainable feed production with Sustell. (Image source: BESTMIX Software)

Leading innovator in health, nutrition, and beauty, DSM-Firmenich has entered into partnership with leader in feed and pet food production solutions, BESTMIX Software to measure and manage the environmental footprint of animal feed

Bringing together BESTMIX Software's feed formulation with SustellTM full life cycle assessment (LCA) platform, the partnership allows customers to generate and share their feed footprints easily. This solution enables feed producers to report the environmental impact of their feed, leveraging existing data in their trusted BESTMIX software suite. 

Not only does this collaboration support feed producers to address future demands of feed labelling, but also helps farmers to accurately quantify the impact of products such as eggs, meat, milk and farmed seafood on the environment. This means that feed producers, farmers, processors, food companies, and retailers are now able to accurately report their emissions, while also improving their sustainability practices. 

"Feed is a critical part of the food value chain. By connecting SustellTM with a well-known software player such as BESTMIX, we further realise our ambition to connect the entire farm-to-fork ecosystem," said vice president of Sustainability & Business Solutions at dsm-firmenich, Animal Nutrition & Health, David Nickell. "Reliable, easy-to-use LCA footprinting is the key to enabling cooperation throughout the value chain to meet the challenge and seize the opportunities related to sustainability. 

Bühler is playing a major role in this transformation with its new Grain Processing Innovation Centre. (Image source: Bühler)

As the growing world population is increasing the demand for food, extreme weather conditions and political conflicts are disrupting established food value chains, thus resulting in food security becoming a critical issue in most regions of the world

Improving self-sufficiency by reducing reliance on imported grains has been found to be a key answer to these existential challenges. Locally grown grains and crops are often more climate and pest resilient, can be cultivated in adverse climates and arid regions, and have a higher nutritional value compared with more refined cereals. Growing and processing these crops on a large scale can therefore provide new sustainable market opportunities for farmers and producers. 

Bühler is playing a major role in this transformation with its new Grain Processing Innovation Centre (GPIC), which is scheduled to open on 11 July in Kano, Nigeria. Both the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari and the esteemed Governor of Kano will be present at the opening.

During the event, participants will be guided through the new facility to gain an understanding of the new capabilities and some of the product possibilities that will enable customers to innovate and grow their businesses in a sustainable and responsible manner.