Author: Suchetana Choudhuri

Mushroom coffee and tea are redefining global beverage habits by blending daily rituals with functional wellness benefits. Driven by adaptogenic mushrooms like Lion’s Mane, Reishi, and Cordyceps, these drinks promise focus, calm, and immune resilience without caffeine crashes. The global mushroom beverage market, valued at $4 billion in 2024, is projected to reach $7.4 billion by 2034, signaling strong consumer adoption. Experts from brands like Nuvedo, Maverick & Farmer, and Hi Shroomz™ see this as the “Fourth Wave of Coffee,” where science and sustainability converge. However, success will hinge on extract quality, clinical credibility, and consumer education to distinguish genuine…

In an exclusive AgroSpectrum and NUFFOODS Spectrum Asia interview, Daniel Baven, CEO and Co-founder of Noahs, unveils how his company is turning everyday convenience stores into digital food hubs — the new crossroads of food, tech, and community. With its plug-and-play platform, Noahs lets retailers “stream” culinary brands like Spotify streams music, giving chefs global reach and consumers fresh, data-driven dining experiences on demand. The results speak volumes — Q8 stations powered by Noahs saw food sales surge 374 per cent and basket sizes climb 228 per cent. Unlike ghost kitchens or delivery aggregators, Noahs taps into existing retail kitchens,…

In this exclusive AgroSpectrum interview, Pravin Patel, Founder of Brio Hydroponics, shares how the Unnati project—a 100-acre hydroponics park in Gujarat—is poised to transform Indian agriculture from niche experimentation to mainstream, climate-smart farming. Patel discusses how Brio’s pioneering Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) system combines global technology with local adaptation to deliver year-round, resource-efficient, high-quality produce. He highlights how Unnati not only boosts profitability for investors and farmers but also serves as a training and technology hub, enabling knowledge transfer across the country. The conversation underscores hydroponics’ potential to address climate volatility, water scarcity, and food security while creating scalable, modular…

Mancozeb, that ubiquitous arbiter of phytopathological destiny, continues to bestride the globe as an indispensable fungicidal panacea, even as the European Union has cast it into regulatory obsolescence on grounds of speculative toxicology. Its multisite mode of action, coupled with an enviable paucity of resistance development, renders it indispensable for high-value horticultural and agronomic commodities—from India’s grapes and potatoes to Latin America’s bananas and Brazil’s soybeans. Yet the global regulatory tableau is a patchwork of prudence and profligacy: while North America permits its judicious deployment, India confronts an incomplete evidentiary edifice and the concomitant peril to trade and farmer livelihoods.…

Exclusive to Agrospectrum, Dr. Nripanka Das, Subject Matter Expert in Carbon Projects (UAE), explains why biochar is emerging as the “engineered permanence” solution in a carbon market searching for credibility, durability, and fair valuation. He highlights biochar’s dual advantage of long-term carbon sequestration and soil regeneration, a combination that delivers stacked financial and agronomic benefits. Scaling beyond pilots, he stresses, will require modular pyrolysis technology, aggregated demand, and blended finance models that de-risk large capital investments. Dr. Das argues that early movers can benefit from current price volatility by building high-quality, premium projects with strong verification systems. He also emphasizes…

In this exclusive conversation with Agrospectrum and NUFFOODS Spectrum, Dr. Katarina Andersson, Founder, WinesOfItaly, relives the transformative moment she first stood in an Oseleta vineyard near Lake Garda — a sunlit afternoon that changed how she saw Valpolicella forever. What began as curiosity about a forgotten grape turned into a revelation about Italy’s evolving wine identity — one rooted in authenticity, resilience, and a return to native traditions. With passion and precision, Dr. Andersson unpacks the renaissance of Oseleta, its role in redefining Valpolicella beyond Amarone, and the bold experiments of pioneers like Eleva Winery. From the new language of…

In an exclusive interview with AgroSpectrum, Dr Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, outlines the company’s strategic pivot from carbon-to-fuels toward reshaping supply chains with innovations like a sustainable palm oil substitute. She emphasises how CO₂-derived solutions can succeed where past alternatives failed by combining scalability with functionality and cost-efficiency. On the aviation front, she highlights LanzaTech’s unique positioning across multiple Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) pathways, backed by regulatory momentum in the U.S., EU, India, and China. She underscores the role of policy levers—from carbon pricing to long-term offtake agreements—in accelerating carbon-based SAF to commercial parity with fossil jet fuel. Looking…

In this exclusive Agro Spectrum and NUFFOODS Spectrum interview, Finnish aquaculture innovator Finnforel outlines its bold global push, starting with the UAE launch of its LoHi brand in LuLu Hypermarkets. With seafood demand in the Emirates growing 5–6 per cent annually, CEO Nora Hortling positions trout as a sustainable, premium alternative to salmon. Powered by a closed-loop recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), Finnforel avoids antibiotics, vaccines, and microplastics, while converting sidestreams into biogas and pet food. Its urban-focused model produces protein close to consumption hubs, ensuring unmatched freshness with minimal ecological footprint. Looking ahead, Nora aims to replicate its blueprint worldwide…

In this exclusive Agrospectrum interview, Dr. Godefroy Grosjean, Co-lead of CGIAR’s Hub for Sustainable Finance (ImpactSF), and Ena Derenoncourt, Senior Officer at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and ACT-H Project Lead, share how climate-aligned finance is reshaping Ethiopia’s agricultural landscape. They highlight how the ACT-H initiative, backed by the Gates Foundation, is piloting bundled green loans that combine credit with irrigation, insurance, and training to de-risk horticulture value chains and empower smallholder farmers. Dr. Grosjean and Ena highlight the ImpactSF Analyzer, an AI-enabled tool translating climate data into actionable credit and portfolio metrics for banks, allowing them to move from single-loan transactions to systemic portfolio design. They have discussed the…

In an exclusive Agrospectrum interview, Oli Genn-Bash, Founder of The Fungi Consultant and co-founder of the UKC Psychedelics Society, explored the rising wave of functional mushrooms as a high-value agricultural and wellness opportunity. He highlighted the potential for smallholder cultivation models, noting that with training, local spawn, and market access, species like Reishi and Cordyceps could thrive in Europe and Africa, particularly through circular substrate systems using agro-waste. Genn-Bash emphasized that quality control, traceability, and provenance labeling are becoming critical in premium European markets, while technology innovations such as solar-powered polyhouses could democratize cultivation in climate-stressed regions. On the consumer…