Ripe For Disruption: Africa's Big Leap In Agritech

Robots that harvest grapes, 3D-printed drones for crops and burgers grown from a single cell? Here's how innovative new technology is making farming more efficient, sustainable and at the same time, revolutionizing agriculture across the continent.

- Tiana Cline

In Africa, innovation in agritech is not only exciting, it's essential. With a quarter of the economy of sub-Saharan Africa driven by agriculture-and more than 60% of the population made up of smallholder farms-technological innovation is the key to producing food that will not only meet the needs of a burgeoning population, but do it in a way that ensures the sustainability of the planet's natural resources.

CELL-TO-FORK

In Cape Town, there's a foodtech company looking at agritech and sustainability through a different lens-reverse engineering. While traditional agriculture involves growing grain that can be fed to livestock until it's time for the slaughterhouse, Mzanzi Meat are changing an age-old process by identifying the best parts of livestock and using cellular agriculture grow meat in bioreactors. These large-scale brewing vats mean that a single cell, cultivated from a cow, sheep or pig, can produce meat en masse. According to research out of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, cells from a single cow can produce 175 million hamburgers.

When you compare this to the 440,000 cows traditional farming would require for the same output, what Mzansi Meat is doing suddenly makes a lot of sense. Not only does lab-grown meat mimic the exact texture of what can be found in the shops, it is 'farmed' without harmful antibiotics or growth hormones. Lab-grown meat could also be the solution to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, land use and other environmental concerns.

For Brett Thompson, the founder and CEO of Mzansi Meat, innovation will happen if more companies look into agritech from a biotech angle. "While more efficient irrigation systems and the use of drones have a role to play, it's not enough," he says.