Description

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Zhejiang University are co-organizing the Global AgriInno Challenge 2020 to employ innovative solutions in response to the challenges associated with ‘distribution and sales of agri-food products.’ The application for this competition is now open.

Moreover, by participating in the challenge, you will enjoy the chance to share information and further your knowledge on smart agriculture, innovation, and start-up practice through an amazing global network consisting of United Nations’ mentors, leading angel investors, academic professionals, and youth agripreneurs from the global agri-food sector.

Details of the challenge

Application deadline: 17 October 2020 (12:00 CEST)

Host Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO

The theme for 2020: ‘distribution and sales of agri-food products’

Challenge Duration: 27-28 November 2020

Location: Zhejiang Province, China

Notification of Selected Applicants: 30 October 2020

Objectives

Intended to identify, accelerate, and scale-up youth-led state-of-the-art business models and digital solutions to unlock the potentials of agri-food innovation to combat the challenges of distribution and sales of agri-food products, FAO, in partnership with Zhejiang University is conducting the 2020 Global AgriInno Challenge implementing the following actions:

a) Sharing the most up-to-date information, knowledge, and best practices in agri-food innovation, technology, and business models;

b) Building an enabling environment through Public-Private-Partnership and co-creation opportunities with diverse applicants, practitioners, and specialists;

c) And, engaging and empowering the young agripreneurs and innovators to address development challenges through FAO and partners’ global network and constant support during and after the innovation challenge.

Benefits of participation  

The selected teams to attend the final competition in China will get the following benefits:

• 2-day professional development around your team’s solution through an approach of co-creation with other young agripreneurs/innovators and experienced experts worldwide.
• All expenses of the event in China will be covered, including a) travel costs: round-trip flight and/or train; local transportation fee (taxi/bus/subway); b) lodging and meals; c) visa application fees as applicable for international participants.
• The access to open data sets from FAO and other partners.
• Instructions from experienced experts from the UN, international organizations, the private sector, and academia, and the opportunity to have a dialogue with high-level representatives from prominent companies and organizations.
• Meeting with top angel investors from venture capital funds and business leaders in the agri-food sector whom you may attract to your solutions.
• The chance to build your global network in smart agriculture with a multitude of stakeholders.
• The top winning teams will receive seed funding (the amount will be released at a later stage).
• The top winning teams will have the opportunity to join a one-week agro-Bootcamp and World Study Tour (training, travel, and accommodation covered) in 2021 to visit FAO and meet world-leading companies and organizations in the agri-food innovation sector.

Eligibility criteria for participants

• The Challenge is open to all youth who have digital innovations or ideas for agri-food sector.
• English and Chinese are the two working languages of the Global AgriInno Challenge 2020.
• All the proposals and presentations shall be conducted in English.
• Applicants can apply in a team or group with one person as a team leader, not individually.
• The team has registered as a company or the project has been operative for 2-5 years.
• The team needs to exploit digital technology to solve a problem related to agri-food product distribution and sales.
• Teams with female agripreneurs are highly recommended.
• One leader of the group must be under 35 years of age.
• Each team should have a minimum of 2 people, maximum of 5 people to participate on-site.
• The team must demonstrate the feasibility and ability of technology to solve the problem of the distribution and sales of agri-food products.
• The possibility of replication or scaling-up the business model must be indicated.

Ideally, the team should be composed of the following skillset to stand out:

• Human-centered design
• Agri-food products distribution and sales
• Agri-food business models development
• Software programming/data engineering

How to apply for the Global Agrilnno Challenge 2020?

The application for this challenge is submitted online. Applicants can complete the documents and send them through the following email.

global_agriinno_challenge@zju.edu.cn and a copy to lu.jiang@fao.org by the deadline.

The team should submit the below documentation (in English):

• Application Form
• Digital Development Solution (PowerPoint of max 12 slides, nearly 250 words per slide, Microsoft YaHei Font, size not smaller than 16)
  • Summary of the solution (up to 250 words)
  • Mission, vision, values of the project (the type of agriculture activity/sub-sector targeted)
  • Problem diagnosis
  • Technical model
  • Timing justification (Why is this moment the best time?)
  • Business plan
  • Financial structure (capital raised, capital needed, revenue analysis)
  • Phased development planning
• 1-2 minutes long video explaining:
  • Why does your team deserve to be chosen? Answer this question in a 1-2 minutes long video. Upload the video online to a video sharing platform (YouTube, Google Cloud, Youku, Baidu Cloud, or other) and share the address of the link.

For additional information, please click here to find out more.