Agriculture

Blue Earth, Valency partner on sustainability-linked financing

Image_of_farmer_using_sustainable_fertiliser

The development will empower thousands of smallholder farmers. (Image source; Adobe Stock)

Blue Earth Capital has announced a US$30mn private credit commitment of its investment vehicles to Valency International

Based in Singapore, Valency is a global trader, processor, and exporter of agricultural commodities with a specialty in edible nuts (particularly cashew & sesame) and agricultural inputs (agrochemicals & fertilizers). The company operates large-scale commodity processing facilities across four countries in Africa and Asia.

The investment marks BlueEarth’s fourth impact-linked facility (ILF), which are designed to encourage borrowers to align with pre-defined impact goals.

The additional funding will provide Valency with working capital to buy agricultural commodities from the company’s network of smallholder farmers and local traders across Africa.

Amy Wang, Head of Private Credit at BlueEarth, said, “By providing this impact-linked facility to Valency, BlueEarth is excited to not just support a market leading business but also empower thousands of smallholder farmers and support critical local processing capacity while reducing the carbon footprint of cashew nuts. Valency’s approach to bridging agricultural value chains between Africa and Asia demonstrates exactly the kind of measurable, scalable impact our capital is designed to accelerate.”

Sumit Jain, Chief Executive Officer of Valency, comments: “We are excited to partner with Blue Earth Capital on this $30 million sustainability-linked financing, which strengthens our commitment to supporting smallholder farmers and driving local value addition in Africa. This investment will help us enhance our sourcing network, reduce environmental impacts, and contribute to the sustainable development of agriculture in the region, all while aligning with our mission to create lasting social and environmental impact.”

welzo Inc expands base in Singapore

Yoshifumi Kanao, president & CEO of welzo Inc. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Agri-horticultural player, welzo Inc, has established a wholly owned subsidiary, welzo Singapore PTE LTD, in Singapore, expanding into the Southeast Asian market

The company chose Singapore as it is a key hub for accessing ASEAN countries. This base will primarily serve marketing and business development activities across Southeast Asia, focusing on the development and execution of marketing strategies for Southeast Asia; import and export of agricultural products, feed ingredients and pet supplies; building local partnerships and supply chain optimisation, and recruitment and development of local talent.

Yoshifumi Kanao, president & CEO of welzo Inc, said, "Singapore is not just a gateway to Southeast Asia—it's a global hub where innovation and agriculture can converge. With this new subsidiary, we aim to deliver high-quality Japanese products to local markets while building sustainable partnerships rooted in mutual growth. This marks a crucial step in our journey toward global co-creation."

Huawei Cloud expands AI-powered smart agriculture in Thailand

Huawei Cloud is developing applications that use AI for tasks such as crop monitoring. (Image source: Huawei Cloud)

Huawei Cloud, in collaboration with Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES), hosted the Huawei Cloud Summit Thailand 2025, where the two parties jointly announced a strategic initiative to position Thailand as ASEAN’s leading AI hub.

While the summit highlighted the nation’s overall digital acceleration, a notable focus was placed on the growing application of AI and cloud technologies in agriculture.

As part of MDES’s “Cloud First” strategy, which aims to build an inclusive and opportunity-rich digital economy, Huawei Cloud is advancing smart agriculture initiatives that leverage artificial intelligence to enhance productivity, sustainability, and environmental stewardship in the farming sector.

Through partnerships with local stakeholders, Huawei Cloud is developing applications that use AI for tasks such as crop monitoring, pest prediction, and precision irrigation, which are essential tools for a country where agriculture plays a critical economic role.

Cloud and AI technologies not only boost production efficiency but also bring a positive impact on human life, natural environment, and sustainable development, explained Aka Dai, director of Huawei Cloud Marketing, during the summit. He pointed to ongoing efforts in smart agriculture as a core example of Huawei’s “Cloud for Good” initiative.

Huawei Cloud is strengthening its local collaborations in this field as part of a broader push that includes nature conservation, inclusive finance, and carbon reduction. The company’s initiatives already include paperless solutions for government departments, saving thousands of trees annually, and now extend to optimising agricultural operations to reduce water usage, cut emissions, and increase yields.

William Dong, president of Huawei Cloud Marketing, introduced several innovations to support this AI-driven transformation. These included the Pangu models, which are tailored for specific use cases, from steel manufacturing to weather forecasting, and are now being adapted to meet agricultural needs.

AI has become the most influential general-purpose technology in the industry, according to Dong, who noted Huawei Cloud’s shift from “Cloud-Native” to “AI-Native” infrastructure.

The summit also featured a demonstration of AI in action, where a humanoid robot and a human with a bionic hand performed collaborative tasks, showcasing the real-world potential of intelligent technology.

Having worked with over 1,000 customers and 500 partners in Thailand over the past seven years, Huawei Cloud is now focused on accelerating intelligent transformation in key industries. With smart agriculture as one of its emerging pillars, the company aims to support the sustainable growth of Thailand’s digital and environmental ambitions.

SMART team unveils real-time plant hormone sensor

Researchers have developed the world’s first species-agnostic nanosensor that enables non-destructive, real-time monitoring of plants’ primary growth hormone: a form of auxin called indole-3-acetic acid

Researchers from SMART, MIT, and TLL have developed the world’s first near-infrared nanosensor that can detect the plant hormone auxin (IAA) in real time, non-invasively, and across species

The innovation comes from the Disruptive and Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) Interdisciplinary Research Group at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research centre in Singapore, in collaboration with Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The nanosensor detects indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), the primary natural auxin responsible for regulating plant growth, development and stress responses.

Auxins like IAA influence critical functions including cell division and elongation, root and shoot development, and plant adaptation to changing environmental conditions such as light, temperature and drought. When auxin levels are disrupted, plants may experience reduced growth and productivity.

Conventional IAA detection methods such as liquid chromatography are destructive and lab-intensive, while existing biosensors often require genetically engineered plants that emit fluorescence — an approach unsuitable for many crops and not applicable in real time.

The newly developed nanosensor overcomes these limitations. It enables real-time, accurate tracking of auxin levels in intact plants using near-infrared (NIR) imaging. The sensor is effective even in tissues with high chlorophyll content, like leaves and roots, and works without genetic modification, making it scalable for use in research and commercial agriculture.

Farmers can use the sensor’s continuous auxin readings to optimise irrigation, fertilisation and crop care based on each plant’s actual condition. This not only improves yields and stress tolerance but also contributes to more efficient, sustainable agricultural practices.

“We need new technologies to address the problems of food insecurity and climate change worldwide. Auxin is a central growth signal within living plants, and this work gives us a way to tap it to give new information to farmers and researchers. The applications are many, including early detection of plant stress, allowing for timely interventions to safeguard crops. For urban and indoor farms, where light, water and nutrients are already tightly controlled, this sensor can be a valuable tool in fine-tuning growth conditions with even greater precision to optimise yield and sustainability,” remarked Michael Strano, co-lead principal investigator at DiSTAP and Carbon P Dubbs professor of chemical engineering at MIT, and co-corresponding author of the paper.

Published in the journal ACS Nano, the paper is titled “A Near-Infrared Fluorescent Nanosensor for Direct and Real-Time Measurement of Indole-3-Acetic Acid in Plants.” The sensor is made from single-walled carbon nanotubes wrapped in a custom polymer that fluoresces in response to IAA. It has been successfully tested in Arabidopsis, Nicotiana benthamiana, spinach and choy sum under various environmental stress conditions, including low light and heat.

“This sensor builds on DiSTAP’s ongoing work in nanotechnology and the CoPhMoRe technique, which has already been used to develop other sensors that can detect important plant compounds such as gibberellins and hydrogen peroxide. By adapting this approach for IAA, we're adding to our inventory of novel, precise and non-destructive tools for monitoring plant health. Eventually, these sensors can be multiplexed, or combined, to monitor a spectrum of plant growth markers for more complete insights into plant physiology,” said Dr Duc Thinh Khong, principal research scientist at DiSTAP and co-first author of the paper.

“This small but mighty nanosensor tackles a long-standing challenge in agriculture: the need for a universal, real-time and non-invasive tool to monitor plant health across various species. Our collaborative achievement not only empowers researchers and farmers to optimise growth conditions and improve crop yield and resilience, but also advances our scientific understanding of hormone pathways and plant-environment interactions,” commented Dr In-Cheol Jang, senior principal investigator at TLL and principal investigator at DiSTAP, and co-corresponding author of the paper.

The researchers are now working to combine this nanosensor with additional platforms that detect related hormone metabolites to create a comprehensive hormone-signalling map. They are also developing microneedle-based sensors for highly localised tissue monitoring and are collaborating with urban farming companies to bring the technology to field-ready deployment.

Sustainable palm oil production partnership in Indonesia

The project will support 5,400 independent smallholders. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

To advance inclusive and sustainable palm oil production in Indonesia, the Rokan Hulu Landscape and Livelihoods Initiative have brought together global integrated palm oil group Musim Mas, sweet-packaged food company Ferrero, non-governmental organisation Preferred by Nature, Stichting Agriterra, and the Sustainable Agriculture Network

Funded by the Danish government’s Danida Green Business Partnerships programme, this five-year project aims to support 5,400 independent smallholders in adopting regenerative agricultural practices that improve farming conditions, reduce synthetic inputs, and strengthen climate resilience.

The collaboration will also work to strengthen two farmer organisations and help 2,500 farmers achieve certification under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) standards.

Olivier Tichit, director of communications and sustainability at Musim Mas, said, “Empowering smallholders through training and support is key to building a resilient and sustainable palm oil supply chain. Musim Mas takes a landscape-based approach to sustainability. Across the Smallholder Hubs we operate, we work with governments, suppliers, smallholders, NGOs, and other players in the landscape to achieve sustainability transformation. This project will enable us to contribute in a new dimension with our new partners.”

Nicola Somenzi, head of responsible sourcing at Ferrero, said, “We aim to create a thriving supply chain which benefits farmers’ livelihoods and communities, protecting people and nature. Beyond sourcing RSPO segregated palm oil for our products, our active participation in initiatives like this strengthens the foundation for a resilient and environmentally responsible supply chain that creates long-term value for all.”

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