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The theme of last month’s COP16 event, which took place in Riyadh, shone a light on urgent global issues: land degradation, desertification and drought. According to the UN, almost a quarter of the world’s total land area has degraded, impacting 3.2 billion people, driving species to extinction and intensifying climate change.
Arable land around the world has borne the brunt of this degradation, with unsustainable farming methods contributing to a decline in food security. With the global population projected to surpass 9 billion by 2050, our current food production systems are alarmingly inadequate and expected to feed only half that number if left unchanged.
Our existing food systems are grossly inefficient. They consume enormous amounts of resources and emit millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases each year. Estimates indicate that the agri-food sector is responsible for about 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals.
Modern agricultural practices are not only a leading cause of climate change, but are also highly vulnerable to its impacts, creating a detrimental feedback loop. As global warming hampers crop cultivation, the pressure to increase food production grows, exacerbating the very conditions that undermine sustainability.
Recent global events have further intensified the need to transform our food systems into sustainable, technology-driven models that are less harmful to the environment. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in global food supply chains, making food system transformation a key topic at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference held in the UAE in 2023. More recently, geopolitical tensions in Europe and the resulting threat to grain exports have emphasized the need for accelerated action.

Our existing food systems are grossly inefficient. They consume enormous amounts of resources and emit millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases each year.

Dr. Juan Carlos Motamayor

One initiative addressing this challenge is NEOM, the region currently under development in northwest ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ, which places sustainability at its core. Situated in a region with low annual rainfall, NEOM is prioritizing food security alongside rewilding its landscapes and increasing biodiversity. Having already rehabilitated 734 hectares of land, and with a target of an additional 1,500 hectares in the short term, NEOM aims to produce large quantities of food locally.
Through its food subsidiary, Topian, launched in December 2023, NEOM is tackling the global food production dilemma by investing in innovative solutions, such as controlled environment agriculture. This indoor, closed-loop food production system is highly efficient, with systems that can use as little as 4 liters of freshwater to grow 1 kg of tomatoes, compared to the 250 liters required by more traditional farming methods. Such efficiency results in significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions, making it a far more environmentally friendly method of food production.
Topian’s food production has already entered its pilot phase, with its first controlled environment agriculture greenhouse opening at NEOM’s reimagined industrial hub, Oxagon, last month. Located within Oxagon’s dedicated innovation district and spanning 4 hectares, the facility has a production target of 2,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables a year. Eventually, crops in this greenhouse (and the others that will come online after the pilot phase) will be irrigated using water from NEOM’s desalination plants operated by its energy and water subsidiary Enowa.
With renewable solar and wind energy on tap, a food production ecosystem with a low carbon footprint will be established, setting a sustainable farm-to-fork template for NEOM. Initially serving NEOM’s thousands of residents and visitors, the plan is for the model to move beyond self-sufficiency, with surplus produce eventually being exported globally through the Port of NEOM, also located at Oxagon.
Beyond greenhouse cultivation, Topian intends to grow high-value tree crops, such as dragon fruit and mango, using advanced irrigation systems. The company is also experimenting with hardier, salt-tolerant crops like samphire, testing their resilience to high salinity levels to identify the most suitable varieties for cultivation. For less tolerant crops, Topian is enhancing resilience to adverse environmental conditions through genomic tools, including gene-editing technologies, aiming to develop more robust strains suitable for arid environments like NEOM.
The benefits of Topian’s research extend beyond harvesting food in a region not naturally conducive to large-scale agriculture. By serving as a testbed for future innovations, Topian is contributing to knowledge advancement and preparing the world for a new reality — an era likely to see more sustainability regulations applied to food production, much like the global shift toward electric vehicles driven by widespread government targets.
Topian’s efforts offer a hopeful glimpse into the future of food security, as its desert greenhouses and research laboratories begin to bear fruit, both literally and figuratively. The world will be watching closely to see if this innovative approach can truly pave the way for a new era — one that feeds a growing population while safeguarding the health of people and planet.

• Dr. Juan Carlos Motamayor is CEO of Topian.