The Grow Asia Innovation Challenge (GAIC) is supported by Korea’s Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and Beanstalk AgTech.
GAIC spotlights groundbreaking digital agri-food solutions that are shaping the future of climate-smart agriculture across Southeast Asia.
CarbonFarm enables rice value chain stakeholders to access carbon markets using AI-powered measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) with satellite data, ensuring transparent and credible carbon claims.
Singapore, 25 October 2024 - Grow Asia is proud to announce CarbonFarm as the winner of the Grow Asia Innovation Challenge, supported by MAFRA, IFAD, and Beanstalk AgTech. The program, aimed at transforming the rice value chain in Vietnam, aims to scale the most impactful technologies and digital solutions to 12,000 farmers across Southeast Asia over the next two years.
CarbonFarm was selected among 100 submitted solutions from across the globe. Their innovative approach stood out for its potential to improve productivity, market access, and climate resilience for smallholder farmers. By leveraging science-backed technology—using AI and satellite data to verify sustainable practices from space, quantify emissions reductions, and streamline the Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) process— Carbon Farm enhances transparency and trust in carbon claims. This increased transparency attracts investments from project funders and carbon buyers, accelerating the shift towards sustainable rice farming.
“We are delighted to see the incredible response to the Grow Asia Innovation Challenge, which attracted almost 100 high-quality ready-to-scale solutions. The challenge will help create a pathway for these innovations to improve the productivity and livelihoods of agri-SMEs and smallholder farmers across Southeast Asia,” said Chrissa Borja, Head of Programs, Grow Asia.
CarbonFarm aims to decarbonize rice farming. Amongst other initiatives, they are currently implementing Viet Nam’s first rice decarbonization project, a program aimed at scaling sustainable rice growing practices to 2,000 farmers in the Mekong Delta over the next two years.
“At Carbon Farm, we are working towards decarbonizing rice transparently and providing all stakeholders in the rice value chain access to carbon credits. Rice is one of the most polluting crops in the world, contributing to 12% of global methane emissions. We are pleased to be able to connect with experts from all around the world through the Grow Asia Innovation Challenge, who will undoubtedly strengthen our solutions and expand our impact to more farmers across Asia,” shared Aparna Raturi, Chief of Staff, Carbon Farm.
The Grow Asia Innovation Challenge also recognized Thanks Carbon and Rynan Technologies as the Top 3 finalists. In addition to mentorship and partnership-building, the top innovators will be invited to road-test their innovations with a tailor-made program of human-centered design training, enabling them to develop and refine solutions that are closely aligned with the needs of smallholder farmers and other stakeholders in the value chain.
The Grow Asia Innovation Challenge 2024 is focused on leveraging farm-ready technologies to enable smallholder-inclusive, climate-resilient agricultural transformation, empowering smallholder farmers to improve productivity, market access, and climate resilience for agri-SMEs in Vietnam and Cambodia, and the Mekong region.
“Around 150 million adults in Southeast Asia still lack access to digital tools, leaving rural farmers at a disadvantage. The Grow Asia Innovation Challenge is an important step toward bridging this gap, by bringing localized digital solutions to smallholders. Through collaboration, we are enabling farmers to modernize their practices, increase productivity, and boost resilience to climate change,” said Liliana Miro Quesada, Regional Specialist, Asia and the Pacific, IFAD. “Together, we aim to ensure inclusive growth for all farmers in the region.”
The Grow Asia Innovation Challenge is also a key initiative of Viet Nam’s new Food Innovation Hub, which has been developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with support from Grow Asia and the World Economic Forum. The new Hub serves as a virtual and physical ecosystem to bring together innovators, scientists, and international experts to address complex value chain challenges that are critical to food security. As part of the Innovation Challenge’s efforts, the top innovators from the challenge will receive mentorship from industry experts to help fast-track their solutions to market.
“Mentorship is key to ensuring these innovations have long-term impact,” said Justin Ahmed, Director of Beanstalk AgTech. “We’re committed to helping these innovators form strategic partnerships and accelerate the adoption of their technologies.”
This year’s challenge attracted nearly 100 high-quality solutions from innovators across the globe. These solutions tackled issues like carbon marketplace foundations, digital advisory systems, and improving marketability within value chains. The top 10 innovators had the opportunity to present their solutions at the Grow Asia Digital Learning Series in September, engaging with over 200 industry leaders and stakeholders from more than 20 countries.
Building on the success of this year’s challenge, Grow Asia is thrilled to announce that the next Grow Asia Innovation Challenge in 2025 will be hosted in the Philippines. Innovators worldwide are invited to contribute their digital solutions aimed at advancing climate-smart agriculture and improving smallholder livelihoods in Southeast Asia.
About Grow Asia
Grow Asia was established by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in 2015 to bring together governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other key stakeholders in the region to convene, facilitate, and scale efforts that promote more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable food systems.
It does this by brokering commercial and non-profit partnerships at the field, level, regional, and global levels between more than 770 public, private, civil society, academic, and farmer organizations that make up the Grow Asia Network. This catalytic network creates an ecosystem that supports knowledge sharing, collaboration, innovation, and policy change.
To date, we have reached over 3.4 million smallholders and small rural enterprises. Through 5 Country Chapters and 44 value chains, our collective effort has increased farm incomes by $81 million a year for selected value chains and enabled 633,866 farmers to adopt new technologies, finance, and insurance.
Grow Asia’s work is characterized by four operating principles:
Smallholder-focused, keeping the farmer at the center of all initiatives and investments.
Country-led and locally-driven, owned by stakeholders and aligned with national plans, strategies, and goals.
Multi-stakeholder and inclusive, engaging government, private sector, international organizations, civil society, farmer organizations, and others.
Market-based, focusing on catalyzing and expanding sustainable, inclusive investments and market-based activities.