According to FAO by 2050 the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion and in order to feed this larger population, food production must increase by 70%. Annual cereal production will need to rise to about 3 billion tonnes from 2.1 billion today and annual meat production will need to rise by over 200 million tonnes to reach 470 million tonnes [source]. The issue of feeding does not only concern the quantity as citizens, living mainly in the so-called Industrialised Countries, demand food, which is affordable, of good quality and which fulfils required nutritional needs.
Food security is a complex problem which depends on several elements and at the same time interconnects several disciplines: climate change, water and land use policy, exploitation of natural resources, agriculture, food production, changing demographics, urbanisation, energy, transport.
Food security touches aspects as food production, transport, certification, traceability, safety, consumer habits.
What We Look For
Kick-start Activities elaborate the business opportunity and the technical viability of new applications and services exploiting one or more space assets (e.g. Satellite Communications, Satellite Navigation, Earth Observation, Human Space Flight Technology). This call for Kick-start Activities is dedicated to the theme "Food Security", which means that it is open to ideas for services addressed to decision makers, food suppliers and distributors, transport companies and other relevant stakeholders in this sector.
Such services may include for example:
- Full organic/fairtrade food traceability: to provide full traceability in order to support food suppliers and manufacturers during the certification process while offering a better experience to the consumers and increase their food awareness.
- Improvement of the food supply chain: to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of one or more elements of the food supply chain (e.g. process, transport, storage, distribution).
- Management of water and food resources: to assess the impact of natural events on food and water resources availability and on the volatility of food price in order to improve the management of resources.
The Kick-start Activity proposed must demonstrate the relevant exploitation of space-based data and technology for instance:
- Earth Observation (SatEO): enables collection of diverse environmental data, including crop monitoring, mapping, change detection and weather forecasting.
- Satellite navigation (SatNav): enable precise positioning and guidance as GNSS data can support trace and tracking application and geo-tagging data collection.
- Satellite communication (SatCom): provides connectivity for any data services whenever the terrestrial communications are absent or not reliable.
Authorisation Of Funding
For the Thematic Call on "Food Security", the following ESA Member States have already made funding available: Germany, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom.
In case you intend to submit a proposal for a Thematic Call and your company/organisation resides in another country, you are encouraged to contact the National Delegation.
WEBINAR RECORDING
WEBINAR Presentations
Registered users can now download the webinar presentation from 11 and 24 May 2017 below.
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