Edama Organic Solutions recycles organic waste to enhance desert agriculture

🌱 Imagine tackling waste pollution and food and water security at the same time? 

Say less, because here’s Edama Organic Solutions! This Saudi-based climatetech start-up is recycling organic waste destined for landfill into products that plough nutrients back into the farming cycle to enhance desert agriculture.

• Co-founded in 2017, by Dr. Sabrina Vettori, Dr. Mitchell Morton and Saud Alhagbani, only last month they entered into a strategic partnership with the Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC), a subsidiary of PIF.

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💰Investor low-down: In 2020, they secured $780k in seed funding from the KAUST Innovation Fund.

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🏜️ MENA, we have a problem…

Let’s break it down:

1. Most of the organic waste we produce makes a beeline for landfill sites.

🚛 Why is this a problem? 

It becomes a pollutant contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and releasing harmful chemicals into the soil and groundwater. Not good.

2. Sandy soils struggle to hold water and nutrients, making it hard to efficiently grow food in desert areas.

💧Why is this a problem? 

Saudi Arabia allocates 80% of its limited freshwater to agriculture but yields just 25% of its own food.

 With MENA’s food demand projected to double by 2050, this inefficiency spells trouble.

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♻️ Dude, hold my compost

Edama is flipping the script. They view organic waste not as a problem, but as a valuable resource that can enrich soils.

They’re big believers in the idea of the circular economy i.e. like in nature, everything is connected. 

1. By recycling organic waste, and diverting it away from landfills - they cut pollution and CO2 emissions.
2. They then transform that waste into products that enrich local soils.
3. Enabling farmers to increase food production with less water and feed local communities more efficiently.
4. Consider the loop closed.

Their flagship product is called Desert Compost. A premium soil enhancer, it significantly boosts sandy soil fertility, potentially increasing yields by 100% and cutting water usage by 75%.

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🔮 Flashforward

Under Edama’s recent deal with SIRC, a new joint company will be formed to develop organic waste recycling in Saudi Arabia.

• The goal of the agreement? Promote desert agricultural development.