Today is National Ag Day in the U.S., celebrating the abundance of agriculture and its contribution to our lives. However, this abundance doesn’t benefit millions worldwide suffering from hunger, malnutrition, and an inadequate food supply. In response, many startups are working to improve global food security, particularly AgTech and FoodTech startups based in Israel, where there’s been a long tradition of innovating to overcome a harsh climate, aridity, lack of resources, and other challenges.
The 2024 State of Food Security and Nutrition report estimated that by the end of this decade, 582 million people will be chronically undernourished, with more than half of them in Africa. In 2023, an estimated 2.33 billion people were moderately or severely food insecure, meaning they did not have regular access to adequate food. Africa is the region with the largest prevalence of undernourishment (20.4%), but Asia is home to the most significant number, 384.5 million. At the same time, 13.1% of adults (18+) worldwide are obese, and obesity-related health issues are on the rise everywhere.
Approximately one-third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted annually. In developed countries, 40% of losses occur at the retail and consumer levels; in developing countries, food waste mostly occurs post-harvest and during storage. According to the American Farm Bureau, a shortage of labor is the most pressing issue facing American farmers today. In the world’s poorest countries, particularly in Africa, labor productivity in agriculture remains at historically low levels, says the World Bank.
This food production inefficiency adds to the world’s food supply challenges resulting from the combined effects of environmental degradation—such as sterile agricultural land, depleted water tables, and falling grain yields—and climate change. Climate-induced drought reduces crop production and lowers yields, while warmer temperatures lead to a higher incidence of plant, livestock, and fish diseases. Unsustainable agricultural practices contribute to climate change and resource depletion, creating a vicious cycle threatening food security.
Israeli startups applying technology to the entire food supply chain, from agricultural production to developing nutritious and sustainable food, are making substantial contributions to global food security. Their expertise in data collection and analysis, AI and machine learning, computer vision, logistics, and biological and agricultural sciences is the basis for innovations that improve agricultural productivity, transform farming practices, enhance food preservation and nutritional value, reduce environmental impact, and foster sustainability and resiliency worldwide.
“The agrifood tech sector is central to Israel’s innovation legacy, built on a strong scientific foundation and a history of agricultural breakthroughs,” says a recent report from Startup Nation Central. More than 750 companies are “driving innovation and redefining the agricultural and food ecosystems,” with 150 startups focusing on diverse domains such as supply chain optimization, robotics and farming equipment, novel farm systems, and alternative protein.
The Israeli robotics field made significant progress in 2024, with new funding and partnerships aimed at solving critical agricultural challenges. Tevel, for example, addresses the agricultural labor shortage with its flying robots that delicately pick fruit with accuracy and maneuverability. The robots can detect the ripeness level of each fruit and perform selective picking while identifying diseases on the fruit in real-time. Tevel’s autonomous harvesting technology can pick various fruits, including apples, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, and pears, and is currently working in Italy, Chile, Israel, California, and Washington State.
Worldwide, there are over 600 million acres of flood irrigation, constituting 85% of all irrigated fields. This wastes water, suppresses yields, adds to water contamination, and increases the amount of greenhouse gases released into the environment. Another Israeli startup, N-Drip, transforms water-wasting, unsustainable flood-irrigated fields into water-sipping, gravity-powered drip-irrigated farms in ten countries and five U.S. states.
Serving over 3,000 customers in 70 countries, CropX is a farm management platform that integrates above-ground data sets with real-time soil data measured by proprietary sensors. CropX has consistently demonstrated up to 50% water savings, 20% agrochemicals savings, and more than 20% yield increases across 80 different crop types, leading to 9%-13% fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Over 70% of the crops of vegetables, fruit, seeds, and nuts are pollinated by bees, impacting a third of all the food produced in the world. Yet, 48% of bee colonies collapsed in 2023, continuing a long-term devastating trend. BeeWise provides pollination-as-a-service to growers with its modern beehive, which includes cameras, a robotic arm, and sensors, performing the tasks of a Beekeeper. BeeWise has reduced bee mortality by 80%, saving over 217 million bees over the last four years.
Using AI-powered technology, SeeTree manages over 400 million trees, providing intelligence on every tree. Drawing data from many sources, including drones, satellites, IoT sensors, and weather reports, SeeTree tracks tree health, increasing efficiency and profitability 2X-5X by offering growers options to help solve problems in the field without relying on traditional, time-consuming manual inspections. SeeTree operates in the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Israel, and South Africa.
Cowpea, a high-protein legume known for its drought and heat tolerance, has traditionally faced limitations for large-scale production. PeaMAX, a gene-edited cowpea developed by BetterSeeds, was approved recently by the USDA for commercialization in the United States. BetterSeeds is developing a delivery technology that enables the cross-crop application of CRISPR to enhance crops with improved nutritional value and higher yields. Since there is no foreign genetic material introduced, the new seeds are considered non-GMO.
From smart agriculture, Israeli startups have moved to developing better foods. BlueTree, for example, enables the production of natural beverages with reduced sugar content. The process does not include adding any chemicals or other substances, leaving the original source a 100% natural product with all other ingredients left intact. BlueTree is expanding its global presence through partnerships across Latin America, the U.S., Europe, and Asia, markets with increasing demand for healthier, reduced-sugar beverages.
Another Israeli Foodtech startup, Oshi, is developing the world’s first plant-based whole-cut salmon fillet. Oshi uses a reverse-engineering approach based on an extensive analysis of real salmon on the molecular level and then seeks those specific molecules in plant-based materials. As 90% of the world’s marine fish stocks are designated as fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted, plant-based fish could help answer the increasing demand for healthy, uncontaminated seafood.
“In Israel,” says Alon Turkaspa, Director of Global Partnerships at Startup Nation Central, “we are redefining resilience, sustainability, and the very way humanity nourishes itself.”