ReGen-RG: ResilientlyGreen

ResilientlyGreen is designed to  empower Lebanese farmers struggling through the current economic crisis. These farmers are facing financial catastrophe due to hyperinflation because most inputs, including seeds, fertilizers, plant protection materials and feed ingredients are imported by private agri-business companies. 

Furthermore, agricultural lands in Lebanon suffer from shortage in irrigation water and electricity. ResilientlyGreen will provide these farmers with an affordable solution generating fertilizer, animal feed and BioGas via a locally adapted and low cost system for Azolla cultivation and a social & commercial network in which to purchase, learn and participate in this venture. 

 ResilientlyGreen's outputs, and the social and economic benefits it accrues will change the lives of farmers in Lebanon, at a time of crisis, and if scaled appropriately can do the same for neighbouring developing countriesby making agriculture more sustainable, environmentally friendly and profitable.  

ResilientlyGreen aims to aid the existing issue of lack of agricultural inputs including fertilizers, irrigation water, feed for livestock and field electricity.

 13% of the Lebanese labor force work in the agricultural sector and are facing financial problems. Farmers import 80% of their agricultural products which need to be paid in US dollars resulting in difficult situation after the Lebanese economic crisis. Therefore, cash strapped farmers have started to substitute, where possible, various inputs: manure for compound fertilizer, and banana leaves in animal feed rations to lower the cost of feed. Besides, cultivated fields face water deficiency so farmers faced with unreliable or non existent municipal supplies resort to purchasing from private sellers at extortionate prices. 

Farmers in rural areas are generally not connected to Lebanon’s electric grid, so lack of power leads to severe water deficiency causing yield reduction. As such and in the face of this crushing crisis the agricultural sector has moved to a low input system, which is likely to result in lower yields and lower marketable production and further reduce the quality of live and potential of the people in this stricken country.

The azolla fern will be cultivated in modular Grow Pods customized to the local environment and built to harvest rain-water in winter season that will result in a self-sustainable system. 

The Grow Pod is constructed using recycled and upcycled material and is low cost and simple to install with minimum impact to the environment. 

The ability of the pod to harvest rain-water  permits the collecting, storing, conserving local surface runoff and using it for future needs transforming a challenge (frequent flooding in winter) to an advantage. 

It helps the farmer in reducing the water consumption bills in case the farm or land does not include any artesian well. Rain-water harvesting will be captured by the greenhouse catchment area or by open field ponds. 

Azolla is known by its strong ability to capture Nitrogen; therefore, farmers will be able to use azolla as a green manure and as a biofertilizer to substitute imported synthetic ones. In addition, azolla contains very high content of proteins, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, so it is an excellent nutrient feed for livestock. Furthermore, farmers can use azolla as a biofuel to produce methane in anaerobic fermentation to provide electricity to their fields.

ResilientlyGreen’s primary focus is to empower the 13% of the Lebanese labor force working in the agricultural sector and suffering through the current economic crisis. 

These farmers import 80% of their agricultural inputs, while they are facing 40% decrease in their purchasing power. Livestock’s feed and fertilizers’ cost have increased by 900% and 533.3% respectively. In addition, water shortage is a basic problem in the agricultural sector, since rainfall has decreased by 7.22% since 1992 and groundwater levels have dropped by 35-40%. Overall, agricultural inputs in Lebanon became hard to provide which is leading to a deterioration in the agricultural sector and more specific in the food sector. Therefore, all the Lebanese people are facing high food prices, the time where more than 55% of them is now trapped in poverty. 

Farmers, men and women, working in livestock or crop farming will benefit from the Regen-RG system. Our sustainable and locally adapted system will provide Azolla for multiple uses (livestock feed, biofertilizer and biofuel), as well as water supply for the system all year round. Farmers will be able to buy local agricultural inputs in low prices and in Lebanese pound which is likely to result in higher yields and higher marketable production.

Therefore, all the Lebanese population will be affected positively due to the decrease in costs in the agri-food sector.

ReGen-RG creates scalable economic opportunities for local communities and enabling the continuation of regenerative agriculture that otherwise would no longer be economiically feasible.  An additional benefit will be the capture of water and the greening of lands to sustain a biodiverse ecosystem under threat of drought and encroachment.  The women and men working in the agricultural sector and struggling through the current economic crisis will benefit from using sustainable and economical methods to fertilize their crops, feed their livestock and power their fields.

Following intensive research into environmentally friendly and economically sound solutions to the product shortages caused by the current economic crisis, YY-ReGen has performed focused testing on the various components of the system.  Alpha testing has been conducted on each individual technique or component of the system: Azolla cultivation, Grow Pod design, Rainwater Capture, Web App Development.  Having confirmed the components suitable  YY-Regen has launched the prototype phase . A lease for the land agreed with the owners in Rmeileh South Lebanon, in a heavily agricultural region struggling with all the challenges described.  

This  Pilot installation will serve as a beta test to validate our services and products with 2 to 3 farmers. We will be testing the Azolla adaptation and growth, as well as its productivity according to different factors. Additionally, rainwater harvesting through greenhouses and open-field ponds will be tested  to evaluate its feasibility all year round.

The ReGen-RG System is catalytic in that it addresses the totality of the challenge at hand - creating a locally adapted, low cost and low maintenance solution, that not only provides products and services to a critically needy population but also serves to educate the participants on new ways of engagement and encourage participation in the development and expansion of the venture. 

The expansion through the participation of the stakeholders will lead to the re-energization of the agriculture sector, and potentially saving an entire population from destitution in these unprecedented times of crisis.

Our solution is still in the prototype phase which is still testing our business model. 

The first pilot project is embedded in an active farming community in southern lebanon in the village of Rmeileh with 6 of our neighbor agricultural concerns actively engaged and lined up to participate representing a pool of approximately 75 people.  

Once commercialised and expanded the solution will serve many farmers that are located in the same region that can benefit from Azolla. 

After one year, our target will be 30 % (around 150,000) of the Lebanese farmers that can benefit from the self-resilient solution that we are proposing. The solution will serve the farmers in a way that helps them to produce their own Azolla using a rainwater harvesting technique that is also produced using recycled components as well. 

Our mission after five years is to reach all the farmers locally and in the Middle Eastern countries that can benefit from our self-sustainable system thus generating power and producing fertilizers and extra feeds for their animals.

We will hold ourselves accountable by ensuring every step we take is held up and evaluated versus the impact goals described above.

- Gender diversity :  Ensure we have an equitable balance of gender in our employees and collaborators

- Carbon Neutrality :  Reuse vs buy criteria for any material used in our systems

-  Empowering local communities:  Engage with local communities first on any engagement, technical, commercial or social

YY-ReGen is a startup company that was brought into existence at the beginning of 2021. It Includes three full-time staff that are divided into two males as Mechanical Engineers and one female as Agricultural Engineer.

Nadine:  I am a graduated agricultural engineer with a master's in plant protection. I am a dedicated, enthusiastic, and hard-working individual who enjoys employing team tactics in the field. I bring a never-ending passion for nature with emphasis on crop protection, field maintenance with a rich knowledge of laboratory procedures and protocols.

Hasan: I am a master’s graduate student in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut. I have worked as a mechanical engineer for 3 years at both Jiyeh and Zouk power plants with Middle East Power company. Then, I worked for 6 months as a mechanical engineer with Vantage Drilling that was responsible for drilling Lebanon’s first exploratory oil and gas well in block 4. Now, I have been working with YY Regen for more than 9 months as a co-founder and a consultant engineer specialized in renewable energy and water management systems.

Amer: (CEO) I have 20+ years of global experience developing businesses at the cutting edge of the energy industry. I bring to the team a disciplined yet creative approach to business leadership, operations mgmt, prod. dev & sales of products and services honed while running divisions of innovative companies such as SLB, GE, BKR, SLX). I have a deep-rooted commitment to my home country of Lebanon, and I seek to give back where I can by leveraging my energy industry experience, academic training, local knowledge, and the enthusiasm and creativity of my co-founders in this venture to re-energize the agricultural sector in Lebanon.

As mentioned before, the startup company includes only three members until now.

Diversity: Leadership is when the leader accepts the variety of differences between the individuals. For example, the company includes engineers from different backgrounds that each one of them has different skills than the other that they can provide and help to enhance a business.

Equity: The leadership does not differentiate between a member and other. Equity in a company helps in providing people of all backgrounds a genuine opportunity to thrive.

Inclusion: Leadership involves employee’s or team member's ideas, knowledge, perspectives, and approaches to maximize business success.

For example, there were several ideas the team was thinking about before we decided to choose one topic to focus on and then apply to MIT Solve.

We are applying to Solve in order to engage with a global community of like minded individuals committed to solving the most intractable of the worlds challenges.   We are applying to Solve because we, as a nation and as a people have a huge amount of problems that we seek to remedy, through our efforts, the appropriate application of technology and a sympathetic approach to the realities and cultural practices in the places from which we originate.  We are applying to Solve because we believe the only way forward is by sharing, building networks and gaining strength and knowledge for ourselves, our communities and our neighbours. 

The most relevant areas in which we are seeking partnership or support are the business model that includes a strategy and development that describes and explain how, where and for what purpose and goal the business model will be used. The financial support will help us in improving our system and in the growth stage. Public relation is an important factor that will help us in the upcoming stage with the marketing strategy and social media to reach all the farmers and everywhere. Plus the public relation will help in expanding and in finding new franchise partnerships. The technology will be based on a web application that any farmer can download and benefit from it through geolocating on the google map and through calculations that will help the farmers to know the costs and savings. Through the app, we will be able to do our product and service distribution so that the farmers can buy or apply to any service by using the application.

We are open to all collaborations and partnerships - particularly those involved in the agricultural revival and biodiversity path.  

We are particularly eager to explore technological solutions that allow for lowering of the cost of implementing carbon neutral and environmentally remediative initiatives such as pollution reduction, waste reuse, and ground water recharge and remediation.

Lebanon has a huge population of refugees, with many more internally displaced populations included, possibly one of the highest ratios in the world.  We would like to assist these communities assist themselves, and we would like to be part of an equitable solution for them and for their host communities. 

Our project will help with waste reduction, recycling and the improved capture of carbon through the increased ground cover by plantlife and the improvement of the soil and the groundwater.  We believe we qualify as such and would like to be considered.

Our solution is in and of the community.  We intend to grow a self propagating business model which will allow for our system to be widely adopted across the agricultural communities of the wider Levant, adapted to the environment and sympathetic to cultural and social mores and norms.