Grow Further

About Grow Further:

Grow Further gives individuals who care about hunger a powerful, effective way to invest directly in the future of food. Founded in 2018, Grow Further is now preparing for the public launch of its efforts to catalyze social and technical innovation for a food-secure world by engaging farmers, scientists, and investors in participatory agricultural research that advances global food security and sustainable agriculture. Grow Further will

• convene donors, agricultural scientists, and subject matter experts to bring new ideas and funding streams together to create an individually supported agricultural research sector,
• invest time, skills and funding in practices and scientific capacity that promotes sustainable agricultural systems, and
• accelerate the development of agricultural innovation for the benefit of smallholder farmers in low to middle income countries.

Grow Further is founded and led by Dr. Peter Kelly, a former economics professor who holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Kelly has recruited top consultants, advisors and directors who deliver Grow Further leading expertise in food security, agricultural policy, innovation finance, social impact, environmental conservation, philanthropy and other relevant fields.

Grow Further seeks to do for food security what the March of Dimes did for disease research: mobilize the resources of many people to create a new funding stream to accelerate research and innovation beyond current norms and institutions. Currently, research into new projects and technologies that seek to improve nutrition, farmer income and climate adaptation in developing countries is funded primarily by international foundations and large agencies, leaving a large funding gap for smaller projects and local efforts in regions with established scientific research capacity, such as India, China, Brazil and elsewhere.

Grow Further will create agricultural investment chapters around the world populated by members who contribute between $500 and $10,000 in funding annually. Investment proceeds are distributed as a charitable grant to researchers in developing markets with promising innovations that would otherwise go unfunded by institutional or venture capital funding. We expect each investment group to raise between $50,000 and $150,000 annually for projects two to three years in duration. The relatively small size and large potential number of these investments; the speed with which we can accurately identify and fund promising projects; and the additional contributions of time and expertise by investors and advisors are all distinguishing factors that promise, over time, to successfully generate a new wave of much needed innovation in the food security space.

Focused marketing and communication will recruit initial participants in targeted communities, and a careful community-building process will engage and solidify participation through curated lectures, workshops, and activities such as field trips to research centers and farms. Qualified members will lead collaboration with experts and direct engagement with farmers, but all members who wish to do so will have opportunities to continuously learn and engage. A robust and transparent grant allocation process will be informed by an appreciation for indigenous knowledge and other critical local context, sustainability best practices, and a process that brings in voices of women, youth, and other groups that have historically been under-represented in setting agricultural research priorities.