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MaYA Leads a New Wave of Agri-Innovation in Malta

  • Writer: SEED Team
    SEED Team
  • Nov 9
  • 2 min read

Malta’s agricultural sector is no stranger to complex challenges: land fragmentation, market instability, and growing climate pressures. Through the PoliRuralPlus Mobilise Call, MaYA (Malta Youth in Agriculture Foundation) turned these long-standing issues into an opportunity for genuine innovation.


At SEED, we’ve followed this journey closely. What MaYA achieved over just a few months is impressive: a structured, collaborative process that brought farmers, youth, and tech experts together to rethink the future of Maltese agriculture.



Clear Priorities, Set from the Start


Before any events were held, MaYA outlined three national priorities grounded in:


  • insights from the earlier PoliRural project,

  • ongoing engagement with local farmers,

  • and MaYA’s own in-house expertise.


The themes were clear and practical:


  1. Access to Agricultural Land

  2. Market Access & Digital Integration

  3. Climate & Water Resilience


These became the backbone of the entire initiative.



Bringing the Community Onboard


Through two well-structured webinars, MaYA created a shared space where farmers, technologists, NGOs, and students could connect.

The aim was simple: explain the challenges, introduce digital tools, and build confidence ahead of the ideathon.


This early engagement proved essential, it aligned expectations and helped participants feel genuinely prepared to co-create solutions.




A National Moment for Co-Creation


The MaYA Agri-Tech Ideathon became a standout event in Malta’s rural innovation landscape.

For the first time, diverse actors worked side-by-side to design AI-supported solutions for real agricultural needs.


Ideas ranged from land-matching tools to climate-smart advisory systems and improved farm-to-market channels, all grounded in farmers’ lived experience.


What made the ideathon different was its bottom-up approach: farmers weren’t participants at the edges; they were the drivers of innovation.



A New Model for Malta


MaYA’s approach demonstrated that meaningful innovation doesn’t have to be complicated. It just needs:


  • clear priorities,

  • the right mix of people,

  • and a process that values practical, locally grounded solutions.



This project set an example for how Malta can tackle rural challenges, not through top-down directives, but through community-led, digitally-empowered collaboration.


At SEED, we believe MaYA has laid a strong foundation for the next chapter of agri-innovation in Malta.



Further Reading (MaYA Blog Series)



 
 
 

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