Egypt Seeks More Self Sustainable Agri-tech solutions
-
Roshan Amiri
- . October 5, 2022
- . Update: October 6, 2022 8:30 pm
A special venture capital fund has been floated by two independent Egyptian partners to facilitate climate resilience and help in funding agriculture startups in Middle east and Africa.
A sum of $25million is supposed to be deployed through the fund that has been established by collecting funds from various investors. Half of that amount will go towards ventures in Egypt and the rest will be split evenly between the two regions.
The timing of the venture capital fund comes as Egypt prepares to host Cop27, the UN climate summit, in Sharm El Sheikh from November 6 to 18.
The initiative has been taken by Hossam Allam and Sherief Kesseba. Both come from established backgrounds and have years of experience in the field of agritech and real estate management.
The fund is also looking for start-ups that target sustainable agriculture practices that will help the land “return to its original function of balancing atmospheric carbons, supporting biodiversity, defending against weather shocks and supporting livelihoods”, Mr. Allam said while speaking to the media. Nature-enabled solutions include using insect protein, marine algae and mangrove forestry for carbon capture. For example, insects can be used as animal feed to avoid creating emissions in feed production.
Read | Egypt Pushes For Dress Code In Universities Across The Nation
Tech-enabled solutions include developing precision farming techniques and creating online marketplaces that give farmers better access to customers.
The fund will focus on pre-seed start-ups looking to tackle the problems of land misuse through tech-enabled and nature-enabled solutions. Nature-positive solutions leverage the strengths that already exist in nature to mitigate or adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Egypt is moving seriously towards establishing more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices as it also moves towards investments into self-sustainable industrial and sectorial developments. This has been promoted more the Ukraine war pushed it to look inwards and depend less on imports.
