A Ghanaian firm, Alert Service-Satelligence, has been adjudged, among two other companies, winners of the Agriculture Risk Innovation Challenge (AG Challenge) for Southern Africa, organised by the World Bank and Draper University.
Alert Service-Satelligence won the ‘Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases’ category. They wooed the judges by inventing a system to combat the invasion of fall armyworm in sub-Saharan Africa through the provision of early warning messages based on satellite technology.
Other category winners
CropIn, an Indian firm, won the ‘Agriculture Data’ category by demonstrating to the delight of the jury a capacity to build large and smart datasets through innovative ICT-driven data collection techniques. This enables farmers gain access to risk and financing instruments.
Also, Arable, from the United State of America, emerged winner in the ‘Alternative Methods for Measuring Weather Variables’.
Arable is providing real-time microclimate and crop health data on two time horizons, driving daily farm operations and providing insight into seasonal Agriculture yields.
The three winners, who competed among 20 other finalists, will each receive ‘honorable mention awards’, free access to InnMind and Draper University Startup Bootcamp 2020. An opportunity to exhibit their proposal work in a report on Agriculture innovations by the World Bank and partners,
They also received other prizes from the partners and sponsors of the competition.
The Agriculture Risk Innovation Challenge
The Agriculture Risk Innovation Challenge, instituted to support agriculture and food risk financing in Southern Africa, was under three categories, namely; Alternative Methods for Measuring Weather Variables, Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases, and Agriculture Data.
The challenge involved a three-day rigorous “shark-tank” style online event where the Grand Jury was selecting the top innovators among the 20 finalists invited to demonstrate their solutions.
After an extensive discussion among the Grand Jury members, the winning places were awarded to three firms.
The World Bank Grand Jury also acknowledged some of the other finalists for their “high quality solutions” by presenting them with ‘Honorable Mentions awards’.
Injini, from Contribute Data Using Social Media (South Africa), received an Honorable Mention for Harnessing Social Media, Saillog (Israel) –Honorable Mention for Accessibility and eSusFarm (South Africa) – Honorable Mention for Innovative Locally Sustainable Business Model
