Case Studies // Farming at the Edge: Producing Food Under Extreme Constraints
Three case studies – Ukraine, Sub-Saharan Africa and UAE
This session draws on three contrasting frontiers of constraint: agricultural production under active conflict in Ukraine, chronic food insecurity across dryland farming systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, and state-directed food system transformation in the UAE. Each examines what fails first under extreme pressure, what adaptations have sustained output, and whether the lessons are transferable.
- Ukraine: When logistics collapse, inputs are disrupted, and export routes become unstable, what has sustained production – and what capacity has been permanently lost?
- Sub-Saharan Africa: Are smallholder adaptations to drought, soil depletion, and input scarcity genuine pathways to scalable resilience – or coping mechanisms under persistent constraint? When systems are pushed to the edge, what determines resilience – and why do some producers absorb shocks while others cannot?
- UAE / Food Tech Valley: When a nation imports over 80% of its food and faces acute constraints of land, water, and climate, what does it mean to build food security from scratch? The UAE's Food Tech Valley represents a high-capital, technology-first bet on controlled environment agriculture, vertical farming, and agri-innovation clusters. How far can engineered abundance substitute for natural resource endowments – and what does this model offer, or not, to food systems with neither the capital nor the conditions to replicate it?
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