The climate
crisis is having devastating effects on certain crops. Oxfam warns that adverse
weather events can lead to rising food prices, costs that not everyone can
afford. Action Against Hunger adds that in the worst cases, these agricultural
consequences can result in food shortages for some populations.
Natalia
Melian (Argentina, 31 years old) leads Biotango, an agri-biotech company
dedicated to developing climate-smart crops. There, they have developed Meta
Breeding, a solution that simulates millions of crop crosses and predicts their
yield under future climate scenarios.
“Our
platform integrates genomics, climate data, and bioinformatics to accurately
simulate crossbreeding, allowing us to identify and select varieties with high
performance in adverse climate environments. This approach promotes crop
resilience and adaptation, ensuring global food security,” explains Melian. The climate
crisis has caused previously productive regions to lose their yield potential,
while other areas, once unsuitable for agriculture, now present new
opportunities. In this context, this graduate in Marketing from the Universidad
Argentina de la Empresa believes it is “essential
to design crop varieties tailored to specific climates and to predict their
long-term yields. Our platform combines genomic and climate data with
artificial intelligence to create resilient crops capable of facing these
challenges.”
Melian
shares that she grew up in an environment where scarcity was part of daily
life. This reality led her to question why some people had access to nutritious
food while others struggled every day to obtain the most basic resources. “That
inequality left a deep mark on me, and from that moment on, I knew my purpose
had to be doing something that truly impacts global food security,” she
recalls.
Melian
emphasizes that, for her, the challenge is not just about producing more food,
but about doing so sustainably. Biotango was founded with that purpose: not
only to create innovative technological solutions but also to pursue something
deeper, a real and lasting solution for the agrifoodtech sector.
According
to data collected by the company, MetaBreeding enables crop yields to increase
by 2 to 3 times compared to conventional varieties. Thanks to the data
gathered, their AI algorithms—which predict plant performance in future
climates—achieve 90% accuracy, allowing for a 2,000% reduction in development
time and costs for new crop varieties compared to traditional methods.
Biotango’s
future plans focus on expanding its solution and developing more resilient
crops adapted to different climates. “We’re
working to move quickly and achieve rapid adoption across different regions,
creating impact by optimizing the use of resources such as water and land,
always promoting more sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture. We
want our technology to be a key tool in addressing the challenges of climate
change in the agri-food sector, helping to produce more efficiently and
responsibly,” adds the founder.
Natalia
Melian was selected as a finalist in the MassChallenge Switzerland acceleration
program in 2024. She has led genomic research and climate adaptation projects,
and Biotango is currently seeking to patent its new in vitro regeneration
solution. In addition, she is an ambassador for the Google Women Techmakers
program. Her achievements have earned her recognition as one of the 35
Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review in Spanish.
