Eight Kenyan agritech startups feted in global contest
Eight Kenyan agriculture innovations were among 25 African startups feted in a live pitch session for the African agri-tech solutions summit held in Nairobi.
The summit brought together the finalists of the Africa-Korean Agtech Innovations Challenge through which the World Bank identified disruptive agricultural technologies (DATs) with the potential to transform agriculture in Africa, having pitched to the Grand Jury in the contest.
Founded in 2011, Kenya’s Kuza Biashara (in the picture) carried the day as the best startup convincing the jury why it deserved the benefits.
Kuza empowers underserved communities by building their capacity as entrepreneurs, also focusing on youth, women, and small business owners by onboarding them to an online platform called Rural Entrepreneur Development Incubators (REDI) Agripreneurs on the platform offer bundled services such as crop advisory, market access, agricultural inputs, and credit to smallholder farmers within their communities, earning a commission in return.
Other overall winners were EzyAgric from Uganda and Farmline Limited from Ghana.
Here is a list of the Kenyan startups that participated and the solutions they address;
Agribusiness Solutions Limited
Startup manufacturing of avocado oil, briquettes, biodiesel, and black soldier fly farming. Also, consultancy firm, specializing in agribusiness financial literacy
agriBORA Limited
The agri-fintech company aims to de-risk smallholder agriculture by building a digitally-driven end-to-end ecosystem. agriBORA’s platform provides farmers with access to a variety of farming inputs, such as seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, at affordable prices.
eProd Solutions Ltd
Offers supply chain management ERP solutions to agricultural companies. The platform enables companies to create detailed farmer profiles, input provision and training, facilitate timely and accurate payments to farmers, and communicate through SMS, USSD, and reports. The platform also allows for stock management, creating a market system approach that leads to a transparent, traceable, and accountable supply chain.
Amtech Technologies Limited
Amtech ICT system operates a credit scores system that analyzes smallholder farmer datasets (this farm-level data is already present at the farmer organizations) using Amtech machine learning algorithm to produce relevant credit scores and decision tools that enable farmers’ organizations to lend.
PlantVillage
Developed a mobile application called Nuru that farmers use to identify disease symptoms and pest damage on plants. The app uses Tensor flow image detection technology to detect objects on plant leaves and patterns indicating disease outbreaks. The AI-powered tool is trained using images of healthy and diseased leaves to enable diagnosis. The mobile app also provides weather forecasts and can be used offline and online.
SunCulture
SunCulture’s solar-powered irrigation systems are designed to be easy to use and maintain, and they are made with locally-sourced materials to ensure that they are affordable and accessible to small-scale farmers. Trains farmers to help them effectively use and maintain their irrigation systems. SunCulture operates in Kenya and Uganda as well as internationally through distributors in Ethiopia, Togo and Ivory Coast.
USOMI Limited
Provides farmers with access to the latest technologies, training programs and forward contracts which enables them to meet the increasing demand for high-quality food transforming smallholder farming into profitable commercial enterprises. training, and forward contracts.
