Updates.
Feb 21, 2023
Bringing soil microbes together for higher yields
Michał Słota, of Polish content farmers, delivers an excellent, concise and understandable overview of soil microbes and how the soil microbiome is essential to agroecosystem functioning. Equally importantly, a health soil microbiome is critical for good carbon sequestering (farming), and area which Big Terra is becoming more involved with.
Continue reading...Feb 19, 2023
SPOTLIGHT ON FOOD INSECURITY
Food insecurity, a serious public health concern in rich countries with developed economies, is closely associated with inequality, affecting 8 to 20% of the population. An estimated 60 million people or 7.2% of the population in high income countries used food banks in 2013.
Continue reading...Jan 18, 2023
SPOTLIGHT ON GRAIN TRANSPORT
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has markedly impacted its cereal grain supply routes. Railway transport of cereal grains has dropped year-on-year by over 90% in some months. More than 630,000 tonnes of grain and other types of food have been shipped from Ukraine's ports since the start of August, according to UN.
Continue reading...Jan 9, 2023
How can you run faster the next day?
"How can you run faster the next day?" A key question our agricultural analyst, Lukáš Tůma asks himself after participating in "V4 Innovators in Israel" by MASHAV Carmel Training Center. Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation at MFA. This 10 days of training was aimed at better understanding what makes the Startup Ccosystem in Israel tick - one of the most famous in the world.
Continue reading...Dec 18, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON WHEAT
Almost half of the world’s calorie intake is derived from essential crops, such as maize, rice and wheat, with Ukraine and Russia accounting for 29% of global wheat exports. From a Food Security point of view, the impact of Russian aggression in Ukraine extends well beyond its borders.
Continue reading...Dec 15, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON MALAWI
Drought and tropical cyclones have cut Malawi maize output by 18.9%. Natural factors are being compounded by rising fuel and fertilizer prices for a perfect storm of #foodinsecurity. Already in May of 2022, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was seriously concerned about the soaring food prices that are pushing the poor to the brink of hunger in the landlocked Southern African country.
Continue reading...Nov 14, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON FOOD INFLATION
Global supply chain disruptions due to Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, attendant disruption of agricultural supply chains, all compounded by the effects of climate change on crop yields, is resulting in an increase in global food prices. No part of the world or country has been left unaffected and, naturally, developing economies are being hit hardest.
Continue reading...Nov 2, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON LEBANON
Lebanon's food inflation is 122% and is the worst rate in the world, with spiralling energy costs pushing general inflation rate above 150%. According to the World Bank, food inflation has soared across much of the developing world since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, trapping poorer and richer countries in a cycle of rising prices.
Continue reading...Oct 19, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON YEMEN
Rarely are Food Security Drivers stand alone events. Case in point? The crisis in Yemen, currently one of the most dire in the world, brought on by protracted conflict, droughts, and floods intensified by the climate crisis, COVID-19, and other diseases.
Continue reading...Oct 4, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON MAIZE
Ukraine is a traditional food exporter, contributing to well over 12% of all global maize traded. In a normal year, Ukraine grows enough food (mostly wheat, maize and cooking oil) to feed 400 million people.
Continue reading...Sep 28, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON VENEZUELAN FOOD CRISIS
Food Insecurity today means a whole generation of Venezuelan children are being permanently afflicted now and for the rest of their lives. They aren’t getting enough to eat, with many being too short or underweight for their age, reflecting a growing crisis of malnutrition.
Continue reading...Sep 19, 2022
SPOTLIGHT: SOMALIA FOOD CRISIS
6 million people are currently facing acute Food Insecurity in Somalia, with 1.4 million children under 5 facing acute malnutrition. The current famine in Somalia, which had seen several prior years of improvement in terms of Food Ssecurity , has resulted in water & staple food prices jumping by up to 160% this year.
Continue reading...Aug 10, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON GLOBAL HUNGER
An open-ended question: What is happening with the global hunger trend?
Continue reading...Aug 6, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON BRAZIL
Is this an example of the Butterfly Effect? This huge butterfly takes the form of the Russian invasion of Ukraine having multiple knock-on effects.
Continue reading...Jul 6, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON INDONESIA
Indonesia is the world's biggest producer of palm oil, used as cooking oil, and in products from cosmetics to baked goods to biofuel. Many Indonesians rely on it not just to cook for their families but also for their livelihoods. When the price of vegetable oils began to rise steeply, the Indonesian government scrambled to find effective domestic measures that would protect consumers and banned exports, as for palm oil producers, it is much more lucrative to sell stock abroad instead of domestically.
Continue reading...Jun 29, 2022
SPOTLIGHT ON SUDAN
One-third of Sudan's population, or 15 million people, are facing acute food insecurity, with predictions it will worsen. It is the combined effect of economic and political crises; conflict and displacement; climate shocks; and a poor harvest in the past agricultural season - key being that most of the wheat is imported, and of that, the majority is from Russia and Ukraine.
Continue reading...May 17, 2022
Applying smart data processing against climate change
The European Union is addressing how to deal with artificial intelligence (AI). It is therefore preparing a new act on AI that will set the rules for its use. Our founder, Pavel Juruš, commented on this in the context of applying smart data processing in the fight against climate change.
Continue reading...May 14, 2022
Latest intern, Ihor Tavantsev, joins Big Terra team
Welcome our newest intern, Ihor Tavantsev, to the Big Terra Food Security research team.
Continue reading...Apr 13, 2022
New Big Terra intern - Ivana Kazazovic
Ivana Kazazovic joins Big Terra team. Will be researching the importance of Food Security in relation to Supply Chains and food market stability.
Continue reading...Jan 8, 2022
Caritas Czech Republic "Agriculture for Life" project noticed by AidWatch.
Grateful for opportunity to partner Caritas Czech Republic in "Agriculture for Life" project in Zambia. Important AidWatch noticed and very small first step towards demonstrating that better access to data can improve decision-making in agriculture. Now the challenge is to repeat this in more geographies and communities long term.
Continue reading...Dec 8, 2021
ESA BIC Green Space Startup Summit
Big Terra took part as an unofficial "ambassador" from ESA BIC Czech Republic in the ESA BIC Baden-Württemberg Green Space Startup Summit. Cross-border outreach and in-person networking is incredibly important for startups in the space sector.
Continue reading...Sep 16, 2021
Press release - Terra Crop Zambia app
Big Terra is behind the latest innovation introduced in Zambia by Caritas - our Terra Crop Zambia app, a simple mobile application that provides weather information and other data valuable for the farming of small farmers and larger local agricultural cooperatives.
Continue reading...Aug 17, 2021
Big Terra mentioned in Finmag ESA-BIC Space Hub article
Big Terra mentioned in Finmag ESA-BIC article From Space to Earth. Czech startups will be kick-started by new Space Hub.
Continue reading...Jul 31, 2021
Shout out from ESA-BIC
Our friends from ESA-BIC gave us a LinkedIn Stories shout-out related to the latest cohort being set up for incubation. A great program, well worth it!
Continue reading...
