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Pinduoduo Launches 2021 Smart Agriculture Competition To Spearhead Agriculture Modernization And Sustainability
Contestants will take a multidisciplinary approach, applying nutrition science, precision farming, and other relevant technology to cultivate tomatoes. The winners will be judged on yield, nutritional value, environmental sustainability, and commercial viability
August 09, 2021
Source: Pinduoduo Inc.
SHANGHAI, China, Aug. 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD), China Agricultural University, and Zhejiang University jointly announced the launch of the 2021 Smart Agriculture Competition, an agricultural technology competition with the aim of fostering innovation and promoting agricultural modernization.
Contestants will take a multidisciplinary approach, applying nutrition science, precision farming, and other relevant technology to cultivate tomatoes. The winners will be judged on yield, nutritional value, environmental sustainability, and commercial viability. The competition is open to young agronomists and computer scientists from around the world and offers a total prize pool of more than 1 million yuan ($154,000).
Registration for the competition will end on Sept. 9, 2021. Teams can register through the competition website (https://smartagricompetition.com/register). A total of 15 teams will be shortlisted by the judging panel to present their plans. The four teams with the highest scores will proceed to the final round of the competition.
Now in its second year, the Smart Agriculture Competition is led by Pinduoduo, China Agricultural University and Zhejiang University, with technical guidance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Wageningen University & Research. The Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and representative agencies from the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Denmark have also provided strong support. Leading agritech companies including Bayer Crop Science, Ridder Group, and Omron have lent their industry expertise and advanced solutions to the competition.
Pinduoduo is organizing the annual competition as part of its support for global efforts to improve and modernize the agri-food system through technology. As China’s largest agriculture platform serving 824 million consumers, the company has made agriculture a central part of its mission to improve the way food is grown, transported, and sold.
“The driving force for the improvement of the agricultural industry comes from the development and application of cutting-edge technologies,” said Andre Zhu, Senior Vice President at Pinduoduo. “As China’s largest platform for agriculture, we want to play our part to improve food security and quality in a sustainable way.”
For the 2021 Smart Agriculture Competition, the judging panel is composed of leading experts and growers with diverse backgrounds including horticulture, crop modeling, algorithm design and policymaking. Tomato experts from China, the Netherlands, and Denmark will provide guidance to the participating teams.
The competing teams will be judged not just on yield but also on the nutritional value and environmental impact of their farming methods. This is in line with Pinduoduo's strong commitment to environmental sustainability, food quality and food safety.
“The Smart Agriculture Competition plays a unique role in that it aims to foster innovation that is usable by smallholder farmers, who produce around 80% of the food in China,” said Tian Jianhui, Vice President of China Agricultural University. “It is an important platform for the different stakeholders in the agri-food ecosystem to come together to develop practical, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable solutions for working farms.”
In last year’s inaugural competition, the four technology teams employed data analysis, intelligent sensors and greenhouse automation to grow strawberries, producing 196% more fruit by weight on average compared with experienced farmers. Two of the technology teams have started to commercialize their technology after the competition, resulting in real-life gains in productivity for local farmers.
"China’s farming sector will undergo tremendous change, making the leap from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture,” said He Yong, Dean of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science College of Zhejiang University. “The Smart Agriculture Competition has encouraged more forces to push the industry forward together.”
Pinduoduo has gone from zero to over 800 million customers in just six years, making it the world's largest agri-focused tech platform. It is unique among other large internet companies to make digitizing the agriculture industry a core and strategic priority. Pinduoduo is also actively evaluating global opportunities to solve food safety and food security issues.
"Technology is transforming agriculture and food production. It is extremely important to implement the digital transformation of agriculture and improve food safety," said Carlos Watson, the FAO Representative to China. “FAO provided technical support to the Smart Agriculture Competition last year. We are looking forward to another successful collaboration to bring farmers real benefits through digitalization."
About Pinduoduo Inc.
Pinduoduo is a mobile-only marketplace that connects millions of agricultural producers with consumers across China. Pinduoduo aims to bring more businesses and people into the digital economy so that local communities can benefit from the increased productivity and convenience through new market opportunities.
For more information on Pinduoduo news and industry trends, please visit the content hub at https://stories.pinduoduo-global.com.
For media inquiries, please contact internationalmedia@pinduoduo.com
GUAM: Small Urban Farms Can Be An Oasis For Underserved Neighborhoods
Adrian Higgins | The Washington Post
October 15, 2020
I ate the last of the season's potatoes the other day, and it's not a bad harvest achievement when you consider I dug the lot in July from a bed no more than 15 feet long. I've eaten many meals over the summer where the bulk of my plate has come straight from my small community garden plot in the city.
It is amazing how much you can grow in a small space if the soil is good and you stay on top of tasks such as watering and weeding. But even in a pandemic-driven planting year full of homegrown potatoes, beans, and carrots, you have to face reality. If you relied on most urban veggie plots alone to feed yourself, never mind a large family, you'd be forever tightening your belt.
FLOWER GARDEN: Dominic Hosack, left, and Scott Kratz, of Building Bridges Across the River, take in the flower garden at the National Children's Center urban farm in Washington on Oct. 2. Adrian Higgins/The Washington Post
This is why I've had my doubts about whether urban agriculture can meet the challenge where it is most needed: in poorer, food-insecure neighborhoods.
Rosie Williams is in charge of such a garden, in an expansive side lot of the National Children's Center, an early-learning and educational development provider in Southeast Washington.
The garden packs a lot in. There are almost 70 raised planter beds, each four by eight feet and filled with deep, rich soil. That's a lot of growing area; the beds generate bushels of edible plants for most of the year. A shed houses tools, a single beehive is active, a few fruit trees ring the area, and one side is devoted to little benches for little people. The center, which normally houses classes for 188 children up to age 5, has been closed because of the pandemic, though a limited reopening is in the works.
Williams, a teacher and the garden coordinator shows me cool-season veggies growing in the fall, young plants of kale, collards, cauliflower, broccoli, and red cabbage. In other planters, mature plants are seeing out the season in robust vigor. The most obvious is a single pepper plant – now taller than Williams – whose leaves hide unripe green chiles that hang like ornaments. This is a mighty hot pepper from Trinidad named Scorpion, she said, and I have no doubt that it has a sting in its tail.
Nearby, a Japanese eggplant is full of purple streaked fruit. Along another path, Williams stops to lift a wayward cherry tomato vine and places it back in its bed. "I don't like to step on my babies," she said.
Elsewhere, wizened sunflowers have had their day. "We bring the kids out, we show them how to plant seeds, what the plants need," she said. "It's getting folks exposed to the garden." Food from the garden is used in the center's kitchen.
Thus the children (and their families) get a sense that food comes from the soil. This is not so obvious a connection in Ward 8. In this corner of the capital of the United States, there is one full-service grocery store for 80,000 people, and access to something as basic as fresh vegetables is limited.
"We have a lack of grocery stores," said Jahni Threatt, the CSA market manager for the nonprofit Building Bridges Across the River. "In Wards 7 and 8, we have three grocery stores." Residents eat from fast-food chains or out of convenience stores and liquor stores. "The food that's available isn't necessarily healthy," she said. Under Community Supported Agriculture programs or CSAs, growers provide direct weekly harvests to subscribers.
'Through the lens of equity'
The Baby Boomers Urban Farm that Williams coordinates at the National Children's Center is one of seven in a network of city farms east of the Anacostia River, including a one-acre farm run by Threatt's organization at THEARC, the arts, education, and social services campus at 1901 Mississippi Ave. SE.
This one farm produced as much as 1,600 pounds of food this year, but to provision its CSA program, the Building Bridges group turns to an additional 10 farms within 50 miles of the city, most of them Black-owned, said Scott Kratz, vice president.
AN OUTDOOR CLASSROOM: The urban farm functions as an outdoor classroom for almost 200 children and is a portal for sources of fresh vegetables for families in a predominantly Black area of Washington with just one grocery store. Here, the pollinator garden is shown on Oct. 2. Adrian Higgins/The Washington Post
The CSA runs three seasons of subscriptions, and bags are picked up on Saturdays at THEARC. The spring season was canceled because of the pandemic, but the summer and fall ones have been heavily subscribed and will provide food for more than 400 families this year. The season has also been extended, from the end of this month to the end of next. Lower-income subscribers get a reduced rate, and families on assistance get the food free, Kratz said.
This is heartening because the pandemic has hit the city's poorest wards the hardest. Many residents have underlying health issues related in part to their diet, and many are front-line workers or rely on the gig economy, putting them at greater risk of contracting the novel coronavirus, Kratz said. Ward 8, which is 92% Black, so far has the highest number of virus deaths in the district, with 127, according to city-data. Ward 3, 81% White, had 34 for the same period.
"We need to make sure that the programming we have is coming through the lens of equity and making sure the access people need is available to everybody in the community," said Dominic Hosack, farm director of Building Bridges.
I am rethinking my sense that mini-farms in the city are of limited value. They are, rather, a key portal into a larger infrastructure of food-security efforts.
Beyond their utility, they are places of deep reconnection, to the soil, to food, and to communities. In the food deserts of big-city America, they are the oases.
Lead photo: CHECKING ON HER BABIES: Garden coordinator Rosie Williams checks a pepper plant at the National Children's Center urban farm in Washington in October 2020. Adrian Higgins/The Washington Post
Tags Farm Rosie Williams Food Agriculture Gardening Vegetable Garden Plant Pepper Veggy
Singapore's Temasek Bets on 'Skyscraper Farms' As Growth Market
Temasek and German pharmaceutical major Bayer established Unfold, a 50-50 joint venture, last month. The company will develop and market seeds for vertical farming both in Singapore and at its California headquarters
Joint Venture With Bayer To Develop Seeds
To Boost Food Security In City-State
TAKASHI NAKANO, Nikkei staff writer
September 10, 2020
SINGAPORE -- Singapore's state-backed investment group Temasek Holdings has extended its business portfolio into urban farming, a concept that will aid the city-state in its quest to become more agriculturally self-sufficient.
Temasek and German pharmaceutical major Bayer established Unfold, a 50-50 joint venture, last month. The company will develop and market seeds for vertical farming both in Singapore and at its California headquarters.
Singapore produces less than 10% of the food it consumes. The government plans to raise the ratio to 30% by 2030.
Vertical farming, officials believe, is crucial to attaining that goal. The technique grows agroponic layers of crops under artificial light inside skyscrapers. Because the plants are not dependent on weather, the method is expected to generate large yields in a relatively quickly.
"Temasek is recognized as one of the leading investors in the food and agriculture segment," said Jurgen Eckhardt, head of Leaps by Bayer -- an investment arm of Bayer. "They have investments in, and relationships with, a range of vertical farming companies."
Bayer will provide plant genetic data to Unfold, which will first develop new varieties of lettuce, spinach and tomatoes, among other crops. The company will sell seeds to food producers.
Temasek will introduce companies to the technology and expertise at Unfold and other investment targets. Temasek holds a stake in Sustenir Agriculture, a Singaporean urban farming company, providing a channel for Sustenir to cultivate Unfold's high-yield seeds.
Vertical farming is projected to grow into a $12.77 billion market in 2026, according to Allied Market Research, up from $2.23 billion in 2018.
Temasek invested 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) into Bayer in 2018 -- funding which helped Bayer complete the acquisition of U.S. seed producer Monsanto.
The company anticipates further investments in the agricultural sector.
"Whether it's in the area of an alternative protein, aquaculture, or crop science, it's an area that requires actually more capital," said Temasek International CEO Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara. "So far it's done well for us and we're still keen to invest more in it."
Temasek has expanded its portfolio of life sciences and agribusiness investments. Allocation in the domains stood at 8% at the end of March, or five points higher than five years earlier. The size of the holdings is about $17 billion.
The coronavirus pandemic has heightened concerns over food security. Thailand and other trading partners temporarily imposed restrictions on exports. The Singaporean government doled out 30 million Singapore dollars ($22 million) in subsidies this April to help companies produce more eggs, leafy vegetables and fish.
"In Singapore, with less than 0.8% arable land, vertical farming innovation is critical," said Unfold CEO John Purcell.
This year, Temasek has invested in startups that develop meat and fish substitutes, as well as plant-based milk. GIC, another Singaporean state investor, in May picked up shares in Apeel Sciences, a U.S. company that developed an artificial peel for fruits and vegetables to extend shelf life.
The less-than-stellar portfolio performance has also factored in Temasek's investments into agribusiness. For the year ended March, the company reported a return of minus 2.3%, the first negative result in four years. Declining stock values of domestic companies such as the banking group DBS Group Holdings and the conglomerate Sembcorp Industries were behind the setback.
When Singapore Airlines sought to raise up to S$15 billion in rescue funds this March, Temasek was the first to indicate it would sign on in light of its status as a major investor in the carrier. Saddled with its role as a financial provider of last resort, the state investment group's ability to reap returns from investments in agriculture and other growth sectors will sway its performance.
Temasek has also stepped up investment in advanced medical fields such as biopharmaceuticals in the past year, with stakes in 10 companies revealed in 2020 so far.
Vertex Venture Holdings, a Temasek unit that oversees a fund specializing in the medical field, has invested in more than 20 healthcare-related startups, including American drug developer Elevation Oncology in July.
"COVID-19 has shone a light on the importance of continued R&D investment," said Lori Hu, managing director of Vertex Ventures HC. "It has revealed critical unmet needs in the health care industry. We continue to actively look at new deals."
Leveraging its broad network, Vertex took a stake in Israeli telemedicine platform operator Datos Health in April and invested in India's IVF Access Hospitals, which specializes in infertility treatments, two months later.
Through its investments in the medical field, Temasek is also involved in the global race to develop coronavirus treatments. It was part of a group of investors to pour $250 million into Germany's BioNTech, which is jointly developing a COVID-19 vaccine candidate with Pfizer. South Korean drugmaker Celltrion, in which Temasek holds a roughly 10% stake, has brought a diagnostic kit to market in the U.S. last month.
Investments in biopharmaceutical developers carry high risks, but the payoff can be large when a treatment successfully reaches the market. Holdings in unlisted companies accounted for 48% of Temasek's portfolio as of March-end, up six points from a year earlier.
Lead photo: Courtesy of Unfold - Vertical farms use hydroponics to grow crops inside buildings.