I’m thrilled to share the official program for next month’s 2026 Asia Biologicals Summit.
Together with our partners at Agrifood Futures, we have assembled an exceptional group of regional and international leaders who are shaping the future of sustainable agriculture, biological innovation, food systems, investment, and environmental stewardship across Asia and beyond.
Our speaker lineup includes:
• Loh Qiu Yi, Vice President, Environmental Sustainability, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)
• Marion Martinez, Senior Vice President Biologicals, Yara | Italy
• Dr Yvonne Pinto, Director General, International Rice Research Institute | Philippines
• Irini Schoeman-Giziakis, Open Innovation Manager, Danone | Netherlands
• Alihan Tjohjono, CEO, Prima Agro Tech | Indonesia
• Neil Falconer, Head of Innovation Banking, HSBC | Singapore
• Dr Darian McBain, The Yield Lab Asia Pacific | Singapore
• Pranav Sethaputra, Sustainability Lead, Asia Pacific, BASF | Singapore
• Prof Paul Teng, Visiting Senior Fellow, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute | Singapore
The strength and diversity of this group reflects the growing momentum behind biological solutions and the increasing importance of cross-sector collaboration in delivering a more resilient agricultural future for Asia.
In last week’s newsletter, I shared the exciting news that the Asia Biological Platform has now moved into deployment, launching its first three crop programs across Southeast Asia. These programs focus on crops that are central to the region’s agricultural and economic future: rice, one of Asia’s most important staple food systems; cassava, a critical industrial crop; and cocoa, a globally connected value chain with significant opportunities for impact.
At the Summit, representatives from Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Cambodia will provide on-the-ground perspectives from these programs, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges of implementing biological solutions at scale.
This focus on practical deployment, measurable outcomes, and regional collaboration sits at the heart of the Summit. Success will not simply be measured by attendance or discussion, but by the partnerships formed, the new initiatives launched, and the cross-border collaborations accelerated as a result of bringing this community together.
Equally important is celebrating the next generation of innovators driving this sector forward.
For startups and scaleups looking to showcase breakthrough biological technologies, products, or services, we encourage you to explore the opportunities outlined below. Your innovation, ambition, and entrepreneurial energy will be a vital part of what makes the 2026 Asia Biologicals Summit such an impactful event.
The conversation is advancing. The programs are deploying. The partnerships are forming. And next month, the leaders shaping the future of biological agriculture in Asia will be in the room.
If biologicals are part of your work, we’d like you in the room.
📅 26 October 2026
📍 CHIJMES, Singapore
👉 https://luma.com/ycd0mbxp
I’m absolutely thrilled to share the news that the Asia Biologicals Platform has moved into deployment with its first three crop programs across South-East Asia.
The key outcome from the inaugural 2025 Asia Biological Symposium, hosted in Singapore last November, was the creation of a Working Group to support the establishment of this regional Platform. It builds in part, on Wharf42’s experience of building collaborative biological ecosystems, across different global geographies.
Convened by our Singapore-based partner, Agrifood Futures, the Platform is developing its first crop deployment programs across rice, cassava and cocoa, generating comparable evidence and learning what it takes for biologicals to move into use across different production environments and markets.
The three crops provide deliberately different starting points: rice as one of Asia’s most important staple systems, cassava as a major industrial crop, and cocoa as a globally connected value chain.
“The opportunity is to generate evidence we can compare across countries and production environments and use that learning to make each subsequent deployment better informed,” said Joshua Soo, Co-founder of Agrifood Futures. “When something genuinely works, we want to understand what it takes to get it into the hands of farmers and industry, creating a clearer pathway to scale where it can make a meaningful difference.”
The goal is not simply wider use of biologicals. It is to understand where they can contribute to more productive, healthier and resilient agricultural systems, and build the conditions for those solutions to scale.
Building science and adoption into deployment
The Platform is working with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and CABI as scientific and institutional partners, connecting scientific validation with questions of where and under what conditions biologicals perform, and what is needed to support adoption in practice.
“There is still much we need to understand about the complex interactions between plants, soils and their microbiomes,” said Dr Yvonne Pinto, Director General of the International Rice Research Institute. “Understanding a biological solution also means understanding the environment into which it is being introduced, and the conditions needed for it to perform reliably and responsibly.”
Crop deployment partners including Thai Wah Public Company Limited, Mars and Salim Agrochemicals Division bring production, commercialization and distribution perspectives to the Platform, helping ensure industry requirements and pathways to market are considered alongside scientific evidence.
Rather than validating technologies in isolation and addressing commercialization later, the Platform brings scientific, farmer and industry perspectives together around defined agricultural problems from the beginning.
“We have real production challenges that need solutions, but identifying the right biological solution is not straightforward,” said Hataikan Kamolsirisakul, Head of Strategy, Sustainability and New Business Group, Thai Wah. “We need practical ways to find promising solutions and test that they deliver under real conditions before asking our farmers to change their practices.”
Building the next crop programs
The longer-term ambition is a multi-crop, multi-country approach that builds confidence in biological performance and creates pathways for trusted solutions to scale.
The work also has wider relevance to soil and plant health, input efficiency, and how biologicals can complement other agricultural inputs and practices within more integrated and regenerative approaches to agriculture.
Meet the key Platform Partners in Singapore next month
On Monday October 26, Wharf42 & Agrifood Futures will be co-hosting the 2026 Asia Biological Summit.
Today’s announcement confirms once again that events such as this are far more than just 1 or 2-day talkfests. Next month, we will be actively looking to leverage the Summit to accelerate the scaling of the Asia Biological Platform.
The Platform is now looking to work with partners who can bring agricultural challenges, production environments, scientific capabilities and resources to develop its next programs. Future crop programs will also create opportunities for biological companies to put forward relevant solutions as individual challenges are defined.
I’m absolutely delighted to confirm the date and location of the 2026 Asia Biological Summit. Following last year’s successful inaugural Symposium in Singapore, I’m stoked that the second Edition will be held at Singapore’s historic downtown landmark, the Chijmes, on Monday October 26, 2026.
The Asia Biologicals Summit is the flagship gathering of the Asia Biologicals Platform, a regional initiative bringing together industry, researchers, governments and investors to accelerate the validation, deployment and adoption of agricultural biologicals across Asia.
A key element in this year’s Asia Biological Summit program will be discussing how regional and international stakeholders can support the Asia Biologicals Platform address target ASEAN crop systems by developing validation, deployment and learning frameworks that can be scaled across the region.
Introducing the Asia Biological Platform
Following last year’s inaugural Asia Biological Symposium, a founding Working Group was established to guide platform formation and early deployment pathways. Its purpose is to strengthen food system resilience, accelerate scientific collaboration and support the responsible adoption of agri-biologicals across Asia.
The Working Group is beginning to explore practical deployment pathways across priority crop systems, including early work around rice and cassava.
Our immediate priority is to build tangible momentum around these first pathways in the lead-up to, and during, October’s Asia Summit.
Wharf42 and our Singapore-based partners, Agrifood Futures, welcome Expressions of Interest from both local and international partners to participate in this year’s Summit. Your input and contribution could help make a major difference to the challenges facing growers across the ASEAN region.
Yesterday, Jacqui and I had a great meeting (& thanks for the lunch!) with the visiting Innovate UK Global Business Innovation Programme (Agri-Tech) team in Hamilton yesterday. It was good to learn about each of the delegates’ businesses and key focus areas. There’s undoubtedly a real opportunity for some partnerships and deal-making to be done in New Zealand.
In-market visits such as this offer huge value to the participants. The follow-up however is the critical piece. It was one of my own focus areas of conversation with some of the team. Two weeks provides you with a taster. To properly evaluate any real export market potential however requires a different and more nuanced approach.
We discussed the Australia – UK agritech accelerator programmes which provide a more in-depth understanding of the market opportunity. I also talked a bit about Platform10 which Wharf42 and Western Growers will be launching in California next week. Building Global Partner Networks can provide both startup and scaleup companies with the opportunity to accelerate their knowledge and understanding of offshore market potential.
The current UK delegation tour in NZ looks like a great introduction to our agrifood and agrifoodtech ecosystem. I hope the discussions help develop a more collaborative framework which both countries can build on.
Last Tuesday, Jacqui and I revisited the Plug & Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale. It had been our Silicon Valley home for large chunks of time between 2010-2015. It was good to be back.
Whilst the address had not changed, the campus’s interior had. A new Events Center had been built on the ground floor and the reception area featured many more corporate partner logos than during our last visit in 2018. It reflects a clear change in direction for some of the Center’s thinking and strategy. This is seeing a much greater focus on corporate partner engagement and certain key technology verticals. Food & agritech is one.
The other big change over the past few years is Plug & Play’s offshore presence. It now has offices in over 40 locations. Sadly, Oceania (New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands) are not part of this mix. Given that the region is home to a number of ‘unicorns’ – Atlassian, Xero, Canva, Culture Amp, Go1, LinkTree, Safety Culture, to name a few, it’s a missing piece in the region’s wider tech ecosystem. The flipside however, wearing my WNT Ventures hat, is that the number of local and global venture funds located in, or relocating to the region, is increasing. Investment activity over the past few years into high growth local technology firms has never been greater.
As we head back to the Bay area for June’s 2023 Salinas Biological Summit, it will be interesting to see how Plug & Play’s work in the food & agritech space develops. Their corporate partner engagement strategy will play a key part in this. It’s a playbook that has been rinsed and repeated. With over 30 unicorns on their own investment portfolio playlist, it’s a strategy that pays off.
Despite the rain and wind that met us on North Wolfe Road as we arrived at the Center, many thanks to Willian Li (pictured above) and Jackie Hernandez for welcoming us back. It was a blast!
Last week, I hosted the ‘Australian Agritech Ecosystem’ virtual event at e Tipu 2021 – The BOMA Agri Summit. I was joined by;
Andrew Coppin, Chair, Australian Agritech Association
John Harvey, Managing Director, AgriFutures Australia
Dr Penny Schultz, Chair, SA Cattle Industry Fund Board; immediate past vice president, Livestock SA
Professor Bob Furbank, Director, ANU ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis
It was great to have a panel that represented four distinct Australian stakeholder groups; industry, government, producers & research. We talked about the current Australian agritech landscape and what opportunities might exist for real and impactful trans-Tasman agritech collaboration.
Building a collaborative trans-Tasman agritech ecosystem is important for both New Zealand and Australia. Over the years, I have actively supported such a move through my work with the Australia New Zealand Agritech Council, AgriFutures Australia’s evokeAG & growAG steering committees and more recently, the Australian Agritech Association. As the founding Executive Director of Agritech New Zealand, I have been able to share some of the lessons and challenges that building an inclusive ecosystem can bring.
You can view last week’s online presentation below:
