KIC AgriTech entrepreneurs poised to make a difference
Young graduates participating in the Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC) AgriTech Challenge have presented their second round of business plan pitches that propose solutions to some of the challenges facing the country’s agriculture sector.
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The business plan pitch saw 16 teams introducing solutions to a wide range of challenges in the agricultural value chain.
The areas focused on included livestock, poultry and fisheries management; on-farm production and post- harvest challenges.
Next stage
The other areas are technical and market information for farmers and agricultural processes; finance and insurance; and the ability to track food sources and authenticate agricultural inputs.
Out of the 16 teams, 11 were selected by a panel of expert judges to advance to the next stage of the competition.
The panel of judges, which comprised representatives from financial institutions, agribusinesses, investment companies, and development agencies, evaluated the teams based on the strength of their business concepts, as well as their management skills, team dynamics and entrepreneurial spirit.
Present was the Kosmos Energy’s Vice-President and Country Manager, Mr Joe Mensah, who expressed delight at the progress made by the participants since the inception of the challenge.
“The teams are improving daily, thanks to the intensive business support and training they are receiving from the Kosmos Innovation Centre and its vast network of mentors,” he said.
The country manager said the agricultural sector offered abundant opportunities for young people to apply their knowledge and skills in innovative ways that could make a difference for the country.
The entrepreneurs
The businesses proceeding to the next stage of the competition include Unlimited, QualiTrace, Agro Innova, Rent A Farm and All Farm Services.
The rest are Complete Farmer, Agrolink, Keros, Farm I.T., Agro Seal and JLS Agric Services.
The members behind the business start-ups are graduates with diverse backgrounds who have teamed up to crystallise their ideas and innovations to address some of the challenges facing the agricultural sector.
Cross-sections of interventions
Some of the business plans focused on solutions to the challenge of authenticating farm puts such as seeds, fertilisers and tools in order that consumers of food produce would have the confidence in the food grown by the farmers.
Other participants also looked at how to help poultry farmers make quick farm management decisions off site, while other young entrepreneurs proposed solutions to the challenge of helping potential farmers to access litigation-free lands and allied services.
There is also the challenge of agro processors sourcing for quality and adequate raw materials locally, which causes long downtime and loss of revenue, contributing to cutting jobs.
Providing access to technical information in agribusiness/agricultural sector to guide farmers and other actors along the value chain also featured in the business plans.
The issue of modern warehouses for agro products to enhance stock management to eliminate post-harvest losses also had a place in the business plans, as were how to validate and trace vegetables produce locally to their sources to improve international competitiveness.
One critical area identified by some of the participants was how to prevent fresh foods from going bad before they reached the market, mainly due to poor handling and initial storage and transportation.
There was also solution for resolving access to appropriate finance to smallholder farmers, as financial institutions struggled to understand the business of those farmers.
