Youth-led innovation: Empowering the next generation of agrifood innovators

On 6 May 2025, the World Food Forum (WFF)’s Global Youth Action Initiative (Youth Initiative) participated in the 10th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (STI Forum) at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York.

In partnership with Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) and in collaboration with Office of Innovation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Penn State University, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Permanent Mission of Chile to the UN, and the Seeding The Future Foundation, the WFF Youth Initiative co-hosted an intergenerational side event spotlighting youth-led innovation as a catalyst for agrifood systems transformation.

Opening the session, Angélica Jácome, Director of FAO’s Liaison Office with the UN in New York, emphasized the urgency of including youth in shaping present-day solutions. Ambassador Paula Narváez Ojeda, Permanent Representative of Chile to the UN, reinforced this message by highlighting Chile’s commitment to including youth in national innovation policies.

The event then spotlighted the launch of the 2025 cohort of the WFF Young Scientists Group (YSG), which provides science-based insights to guide the WFF Youth Initiative's work and empowers young changemakers to make informed decisions. Ram Neupane, a PhD candidate at Princeton University and YSG alumnus shared how the WFF Youth Initiative enabled him to engage directly with global decision-makers. He noted that without targeted support, many scientific breakthroughs risk failing to reach the smallholder farmers and youth who need them most.

Bernhard van Lengerich, Founder of the Seeding The Future Foundation and former Chief Science Officer at General Mills, responded to Ram’s concerns, calling on institutions to rethink how innovation is supported. "If it's not crazy, it's not good enough", he remarked, underscoring the value of unconventional thinking and urging stakeholders to see youth as credible drivers of systemic change.

The discussion then shifted to incubation and support for early-stage innovation. Maria Spencer, the John and Patty Warehime Entrepreneur in Residence & Assistant Clinical Professor, and Noel Habashy, Associate Teaching Professor of Global Agriculture at Penn State University, presented the Youth Food Lab North America at Penn State. The programme supports emerging innovators by providing mentorship, testing facilities and academic resources. Courtney Hood, Head of IFAD's Liaison Office in Washington, D.C., highlighted the Youth Agribusiness Hubs in nine African countries, which promote youth employment and entrepreneurship through skills training, mentorship and access to markets.

The final segment spotlighted the 2025 WFF Startup Innovation Awards (SIA), presented by Victoria Slivkoff, Executive Managing Director of Extreme Tech Challenge. She emphasized how the competition has created a platform to elevate grassroots innovations to global audiences. Drawing attention to the fact that 74% of last year’s finalists came from the Global South, she highlighted how the competition supports commercially viable solutions emerging from underrepresented regions. Slivkoff underlined the importance of bold thinking, stating, “Innovation has no borders. You have to be bold, tackle big problems and believe that crazy ideas today are the real solutions of tomorrow”.

Slivkoff was joined by Miraal Kabir and Martin Turuta, co-founders of Safi and winners of the Digital Innovation in Food Processing category in the 2024 Startup Innovation Awards. They presented their off-grid pasteurization control unit, designed for the informal dairy market in East Africa as an example of how youth-driven, locally relevant innovations can produce scalable, system-level impact. Their story illustrated the importance of providing targeted support at early stages and how competitions like the SIA can help young innovators navigate barriers, build credibility and reach broader markets.

Vincent Martin, Director of the Office of Innovation, FAO, closed the session by highlighting the need for sustained, strategic collaboration. “Alone, we cannot achieve anything. If we do not join forces, we are just creating noise — not transformation”, he said, emphasizing the value of coordinated action in supporting youth innovation.

The STI Forum highlighted that youth-led agrifood systems innovation is not a distant goal, it is already making an impact. With continued investment, partnership and trust in the next generation, young innovators are poised to lead the way towards more sustainable, inclusive agrifood systems.