Young Entrepreneurs Turn Land Restoration into Profitable Ventures Across the Globe

From Ecuador to Bangladesh, a new generation of entrepreneurs is transforming land restoration into sustainable economic opportunities. By repurposing agricultural waste, establishing high-efficiency greenhouses, and deploying AI-driven sensors, these innovators are demonstrating—backed by a United Nations-supported initiative—that ecological restoration can simultaneously generate income and enhance livelihoods.

In Senegal, Daniel Halman has embraced a straightforward concept: if farmers can increase yields on smaller plots, surplus land becomes available for restoration. His enterprise, Féro, integrates high-productivity greenhouses with agroforestry systems. Crops cultivated within the greenhouses are harvested and sold rapidly, while fruit trees and indigenous species are planted across other sections of the farm. This balanced approach seeks to minimize cultivated land requirements while rendering restoration financially viable.

Mr. Halman first recognized the potential of restoration during his university years, participating in a modest tree-planting and soil-recovery project.

“You can certainly pursue this through an NGO, but I deliberately chose to build a business,” he stated at an event in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, the host city for COP17 of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

One major challenge was time. Trees often require years before generating returns, yet businesses need immediate cash flow. Féro addresses this by pairing long-term restoration with fast-growing greenhouse crops that provide quicker revenue.

“People in Senegal really enjoy onions, so we saw a clear market opportunity,” Mr. Halman explained, emphasizing that identifying environmental issues is only part of the solution; businesses must also align with consumer demand.

Green Eden Farms’ ScareGrow system utilizes solar-powered field devices to gather data that guide farmers in optimizing water and input usage.

Solar-powered sensors enhance water and resource efficiency

Ritkatmun Bwemana co-founded Green Eden Farms after gaining firsthand experience as a small-scale farmer in Nigeria, where she witnessed declining soil fertility amid rising food demands. Her company created ScareGrow, a solar-powered precision agriculture platform that delivers actionable insights to reduce excessive water and fertilizer use.

For Green Eden Farms, impact isn’t measured solely by device sales or client numbers.

“We assess whether farmers are truly conserving water, minimizing inputs, and applying resources efficiently—at the right times and locations,” she noted.

To Ms. Bwemana, measurable benefits for land-dependent communities are essential for scaling restoration efforts.

“Present restoration as merely an environmental cause, and it won’t resonate economically with farmers. It must make financial sense.”

Pacchar produces biochar by heating organic waste with minimal oxygen. The Pacchar team showcases freshly made biochar alongside the kiln used to process agroforestry residues. Transforming agricultural waste into soil enhancement

In Ecuador, Carlos Alfredo González Vargas identified dual challenges: degraded farmland and excessive agricultural and forestry residues being burned or discarded. His 2021-founded company, Pacchar, converts these residues into biochar—a soil-enriching charcoal that improves water retention, reduces fertilizer dependency, and sequesters carbon for extended periods.

Currently, Pacchar collaborates with cocoa, banana, rose, vegetable, and other crop producers across multiple Ecuadorian provinces, engaging over 100 rural communities and restoring more than 500 hectares of farmland.

“Seeing fertile land transform into desert was deeply distressing,” Mr. González recalled. “It instilled in me a profound urgency to act—land restoration cannot wait.”

After initial trials, he reports noticeable gains in crop yields, along with reductions in water and fertilizer use.

However, proven outcomes alone weren’t sufficient to earn farmers’ trust. Many questioned the impartiality of a company conducting its own research while selling its product.

“You’re doing the studies, but you’re also trying to sell me your product. I don’t trust it,” González remembered hearing.

To address skepticism, Pacchar joined forces with universities and independent research institutions to validate performance across diverse crops and soil types.

“Innovation must go hand in hand with rigorous research to build credibility,” he emphasized.

Aunkur assists farmers during training sessions in Bangladesh, introducing them to the Sufola Card linked to their digital profiles, enabling access to farm data, agronomic guidance, and financial tools.

Leveraging AI to unlock farm intelligence

Mashrur H. Shurid tackled farmer skepticism in Bangladesh, where unpredictable weather patterns—including erratic rainfall, floods, droughts, and salinity intrusion—complicated planting decisions. When he launched Aunkur in 2021, his primary goal was proving that technology could offer field-level accuracy worthy of farmers’ trust.

Aunkur synthesizes data on soil conditions, weather forecasts, and farm-specific variables to guide small-scale producers in selecting crops, timing plantings, and managing evolving conditions. The platform now serves over 33,000 farms in Bangladesh and is piloting expansion in neighboring regions.

Technical analytics hold little value unless translated into actionable steps for farmers.

“Choose this seed variety, apply this fertilizer at this dosage—based on real-time field intelligence,” Mr. Shurid described the service.

Once utility is demonstrated, Aunkur helps connect farmers with buyers and lending institutions that previously lacked reliable data to evaluate them.

“Once farmers begin seeing measurable benefits, we must quantify that proof,” Mr. Shurid said. Such evidence, he added, can then be leveraged when presenting proposals to banks and investors.

Inspired by ancient Amazonian terra preta soils, biochar enhances soil water retention and nutrient capacity while storing atmospheric carbon for decades. Entrepreneurship rooted in ecological restoration

These four visionaries are part of the Youth Ecopreneur Programme (YECO), a collaboration between the International Trade Centre and the UNCCD’s G20 Global Land Initiative aimed at empowering young leaders to launch green enterprises and attract capital.

In its most recent cycle, YECO supported 225 entrepreneurs globally, with 25 advancing to an accelerated track focused on business strategy, intellectual property management, and investor readiness.

Beyond individual achievements, the program envisions fostering a “restoration economy”—where land recovery drives employment and opens new markets, reducing reliance on aid or short-term public funding.

“We must tap into locally developed solutions and activate market forces to ensure restoration remains economically sustainable,” said Fabiola Nava of the G20 Global Land Initiative.

Support from YECO proved instrumental for each entrepreneur. Mr. Shurid received guidance from WIPO on patent strategies. Mr. González benefited from investor outreach training, which led to research collaborations and investment opportunities. Ms. Bwemana accessed mentorship tailored to agritech ventures. Meanwhile, Mr. Halman acquired foundational skills in marketing, innovation protection, and revenue modeling.

Should their models scale successfully, these pioneers could redefine restoration—not as a donor-dependent effort, but as a self-sustaining engine of economic growth that rewards stewards of the land for generations to come.

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