FOCUS AREAS | Food & Agriculture
How might we build resilient food systems that sustainably nourish a growing global population?
Feeding 8.5 billion people sustainably is one of the defining challenges of our time. Climate volatility, resource scarcity, and supply chain fragility are putting food systems under pressure. The opportunity is not just to produce enough food, but to build systems that are regenerative, resilient, and capable of feeding more people well.
Southeast Asia, where 720 million people live, is at the heart of this. Smallholder farmers feed a significant share of the population here. Giving them better access to technology, data, and best practices is both an agricultural and economic intervention, with ripple effects across communities and food systems.
Startups, scale-ups, and SMEs are essential to this transformation.
They bring the agility and practical innovations that larger players later adopt and scale. Progress in food and agriculture touches almost every dimension of sustainable development, from health and nutrition to climate action and economic empowerment. We see it as a foundation
for the Green Economy.
We support SDG 2: Zero Hunger.
Our global partners:
Grow Asia Digital Learning Series
Padang & Co is partnering with Grow Asia to present the Digital Learning Series that brings together corporate leaders, AgriTech startups, and ecosystem enablers to discuss and learn about emerging technologies, as well as to uncover opportunities for scalable, impactful digital solutions that could be adopted by smallholder farmers.
Highlights:
Foodtech Frontier Challenge
Enterprise Singapore
Innovation challenge to discover startups to collaborate with leading food industry players on taste, texture, nutrition, and sustainability
Grow Asia
Directory Showcase
Grow Asia, ADB Ventures, Bayer, Cargill, and Jollibee Group Foundation
Startup marketplace for programme partners and VCs, to address the challenge of data collection and insight delivery for smallholders
Fishackathon
DSM, Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative, and Eachmile
Global programme to engage communities of innovators to inspire collaboration and address aquatic-related sustainability challenges
SustainableAg Asia Challenge
Rabobank and Rabo Foundation, with ADM, Bayer, DSM, Olam, and Temasek
Matchmaking between corporate partners and startups with solutions for the sustainability and integrity in agrifood supply chains
Food Loss
Challenge Asia
Rabobank, supported by ADM, CP Foods, Olam, Temasek, and UPL
Innovation challenge to discover startups with solutions to significantly reduce food loss from farm to market in Asia
Digital ASEAN
Program
MUFG, YARA, and Grow Asia
First pan-Asian agritech acceleration program to unlock economic opportunities for smallholder farmers