How Technology Can Feed the World

Highlights from the USAID Deputy Administrator’s panel at Concordia

USAID Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick appears on a panel at the Concordia Summit today.

Today, USAID Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick spoke on a panel during the Concordia Summit with Oracle CEO Safra Catz.

At the discussion, moderated by U.S. Global Leadership Coalition President and CEO Liz Schrayer, Glick spoke about how USAID is partnering with the private sector to employ some of the world’s most innovative technologies to support food security and self-reliance for hundreds of millions across the globe.

Here are three highlights.

Why does USAID have a digital strategy?

Self-reliance in a country can’t happen without strengthening open, inclusive, and secure digital ecosystems, Glick said. USAID is rethinking its work by using a combination of mobile phones, low-cost data collection applications with built-in analytics, complex machine learning tools, high-resolution geospatial imagery, and the power of big data.

USAID emphasized this approach in our first-ever Agency-wide Digital Strategy, released in April this year. The strategy charts our vision for development and humanitarian assistance in the world’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.

“The shift for us is historic and it’s significant in our own operations, not just in the way that we deliver assistance,” she said. “People in developing countries aren’t just seeing our assistance in the form of food and water donations or governance programs anymore. They’re seeing our work directly on their mobile devices.”

A USAID project in Nigeria implemented by a local startup uses a combination of digital record keeping and community engagement to increase early childhood immunizations. / KC Nwakalor for USAID

USAID’s role has expanded beyond just ensuring that a country can sustain itself — by addressing how emerging market countries can leapfrog technology gaps and begin using leading technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and eventually quantum computing, she said.

One of the critical components of the Digital Strategy’s implementation is what Glick likes to call “digital by default.” USAID is now mandating all programmatic data be collected and transmitted digitally, giving us an enormous database of information from which we can make better decisions.

How is technology making a difference in the agricultural sector?

Digital technology is critical to meeting the global challenges of producing more food more efficiently, with less land and less water, with better nutritional outcomes, and using more affordable equipment, she said.

“Food security is something that is a pressing problem on all of us, and it usually doesn’t get enough focus, especially considering the severity of the situation,” she said

Field assistants take spectral reflectance measurements on wheat plants at Borlaug Institute for South Asia. The research is a part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative to develop stress resilient and high yielding wheat cultivars for South Asia. Kansas State University researchers are assisting research partners in South Asia in the adoption of new digital agriculture tools. / Daljit Singh

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Glick said, more than 100 million people are in danger of food insecurity this year alone. This is decades of development progress rolled back nearly overnight.

But this crisis can also present an opportunity, she said, and we see the chance for technology and partnership with private sector companies to be the great equalizer in the course of this crisis.

“Technology can and it does save lives, whether it’s providing touchless transactions to reduce the spread of disease, or online cash transfers for those who are in the greatest need,” Glick said.

She cited a successful pilot program with Oracle and Israeli startup AgroScout to supply farmers with technology that spots crop disease sooner so they can apply pesticides only when and where needed.

In Moldova, a USAID project uses drones and GIS data to digitize the vineyard inspection process, allowing farmers to quickly identify and isolate vines infected by F. dorée. / Colby Gottert for USAID

“Imagine this sort of technology at scale in the developing world,” she said. “Tens of millions of smallholder farmers would be better able to anticipate and prevent pestilence or disease outbreaks.”

This would lead to higher crop yields, less wasted labor, and resilience against plagues that can lead to food insecurity and sometimes famine, she said.

“This is all being done thanks to companies like Oracle and AgroScout teaming up to bring new technologies to the farm, to increase production and profits in a way that’s sustainable, and it comes with no direction from governments or central planners,” she said.

She brought up the historic peace treaties signed at the White House this week between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. An Israeli company like AgroScout can serve as “a vehicle for peace and prosperity for its neighbors,” she said.

“The United States can partner with Israel, and we can bring a difference to people’s lives around the world in partnership with countries that used to be adversaries,” she said.

Looking five years ahead, what will success look like if we integrate technology into our toolbox to address global challenges?

We’re at a critical juncture in international development where we cannot go back to doing business like we used to, Glick said.

Digital innovations allow us to blaze a new path toward an era where technology is the key component of foreign assistance, and the only way we can get there is through private sector engagement, she said.

“Success for us looks very clearly like a defined, expanded, and more fruitful series of partnerships with the private sector,” she said.

For more on USAID’s work in digital development, read Glick’s opinion article published in Newsweek, “Why Does 5G Matter in Development?”