The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia faces critical national challenges related to food and agriculture, including but not limited to the production of food in harsh climate conditions, reliance on non-renewable water sources, addressing pest and animal diseases, and mitigating food waste.

Addressing these challenges necessitates the national-scale deployment and adoption of technological solutions, including innovations related to precision agriculture, biotechnology, nanotechnology, alternative foods, innovative fertilizers and biopesticides and a diverse range of other emerging and mature technologies in the field.

Deploying these solutions at national scale will require the engagement and expertise from a large spectrum of organizations both within and outside of the country. This presents a historic opportunity for the Kingdom to establish a multi-stakeholder platform with leaders in the food and agriculture ecosystem that is representative of the broad range of technologies and stakeholder groups. To do so, a diverse cohort will be enlisted across the public sector, research & academia, private sector and other non-state actors (e.g. NGOs).

The Saudi AgriFood Tech Alliance aims to fulfill this purpose by providing a platform to unite and mobilize a complementary network of food & agriculture stakeholders in order to catalyze the national-scale deployment of AgriFood technological solutions. In doing so, it will focus on three key objectives;

1. Establish a vibrant community of ecosystem stakeholders with shared interests in the advancement of AgriFood technological solutions.

2. Catalyze partnerships and collaboration between Alliance members through events, knowledge sharing, networking and curated intra-Alliance member matchmaking.

3. Create a forum to identify, prioritize and inform policies that collectively benefit the AgriFood ecosystem.

The Alliance will be operated and managed by an independent Alliance Secretariat and governed by an Alliance Steering Committee. Members will meet on a quarterly and annual basis to share knowledge, explore synergies, forge partnerships and jointly collaborate to inform policy and drive initiatives that benefit the broader ecosystem.

Under the auspices of MEWA, we invite prospective Alliance members to participate in this historic opportunity to unite to address the Kingdom’s challenges in the Food & Agriculture sector. Alliance members stand to benefit from shaping the future of the AgriFood technological landscape across the Kingdom and build knowledge and commercial bridges between one another, creating new economic opportunities whilst simultaneously contributing towards mission-critical National challenges.