Terviva, Inc., an agricultural innovation company pioneering high-yield pongamia and patented pongamia products for food, feed, and fuel, was ranked #6 on the 2024 FoodTech 500. The FoodTech 500, by Forward Fooding, is a premier list that recognizes the most innovative global talent at the intersection of food, technology, and sustainability. Known as the “Fortune 500 list of agrifood companies,” FoodTech 500 is selected by evaluating a business on its size, digital footprint and sustainability as measured against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Terviva was ranked six from a highly competitive pool of nearly 1,500 applicants across 70 countries. 

Queensland Country Life feature on Terviva’s work in Australia. Australian native on trial in CQ could be world's new 'super food'

Is This 'Super Tree' The Future of Bioenergy and Plant-Based Protein?

Today’s episode is long overdue. For the past 15 years, today’s guest: Naveen Sikka, has been working to commercialize the pongamia tree. There are several things that are special about this emerging crop. First, it’s a legume, so like soybeans, peas, lentils, chickpeas and other legumes, the plant forms symbiotic relationships with nitrogen fixing bacteria, so in short, it can fix its own nitrogen from the atmosphere. Although the crop does still require some fertilizer - just a fraction of what is required for a lot of other crops. Also like other legumes, the beans are very high in oil and protein. But unlike those crops it’s a tree, which can have benefits in terms of productivity, soil health, and adaptability to certain parts of the world. So you have this supertree, that is a nitrogen fixer that is a perennial and adapted to both periods of flooding and periods of drought, and most of all it produces a versatile and nutrient dense crop. Naveen’s going to share a whole lot more about pongamia, but I wanted to start with answering, why is all of this effort worthwhile? 

An ancient tree from India is now thriving in groves where citrus trees once flourished in Florida, and could help provide the nation with renewable energy.

Read the entire Associated Press article.

The ultimate ‘climate-smart’ crop, nitrogen-fixing Pongamia trees produce significantly more biomass per acre than soybeans with a fraction of the inputs. But scaling and commercializing products from a completely new crop takes time and patient capital, says Terviva cofounder and CEO Naveen Sikka.

The definitive list of the top 500 AgriFoodTech companies in the world

This legume has superpowers: It's drought tolerant, pest resistant, nitrogen fixing, carbon sequestering, soil remediating, high-yielding and rich in protein. It can provide food and fuel, and combat climate change, all with a single pod. And Terviva wants to plant millions of them to feed billions.

Aloha, Terviva team to launch plant-based protein bar featuring much-anticipated, ‘ultra-sustainable’ Ponova oil