ISLAMABAD – Ful Foods (-ful), an agritech startup focused on sustainable localized animal feed, has been selected as the only Pakistani semifinalist in the United Nations World Food Forum Startup Innovation Awards, one of the most prestigious international platforms for innovations in food systems.
The competition consisted of nearly 2,000 applications from over 100 countries. Ful is competing in the Driving Innovation in Agrifood Systems Award category and will go up against 14 other startups to ultimately crown 2 winners. The award recognizes initiatives undertaking major food system challenges such as climate, import dependance, and safe nutrition.
Ful Foods builds open-pond cultivation systems that grow duckweed, a rapidly growing aquatic plant that works as both a sustainable and local alternative to high-cost imported soybean/oil-seed meal for animal feed. Ful’s model is specifically designed to address and alleviate supply-chain and climate shock to some of Pakistan’s most essential food systems.
The company will represent Pakistan in the World Food Forum’s (WFF) innovation showcase this month: “We’re proud to put Pakistan’s agritech potential on the map,” said Ful founder Omar Kazmi. “This selection validates the work we’ve been doing to localize sustainable feed production for a low-resource, high-impact context.” The World Food Forum is hosted in association by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and supported by Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC).
The competition sheds light upon youth-led innovation and connects investors and food system experts to help them overcome challenges and reach scalability. About Ful Foods Ful Foods is a Pakistani agritech company focused on localized, sustainable feed solutions using aquatic plants like duckweed and azolla.
The company has partnered with research institutions including PMAS Arid Agriculture University and the WFF and are currently piloting its systems across multiple provinces.
