15 Start-ups progress to next stage of Agritech Challenge
Fifteen start-ups in the agritech solutions space have emerged winners of the 2022 Agri Tech Challenge Classic which aims at developing the next generation of young entrepreneurs in Ghana's agriculture sector.
The fifteen teams are: AgroCold, Agyenkwah, Alpha Weeder, AgroEmpire, Green Grow, Dirty Gold, Kigo, Duckweeds Aduanepa, BES Veggie, KoduTech, Plant Aide, Biocul, Premium Coco and Witdeen.
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They were shortlisted out of a total of 50 emerging start-ups, and will move to the next stage of the competition.
The next stage of the competition, which is the Agri Tech Challenge Pro, is an accelerator programme aimed at supporting young entrepreneurs to launch and grow commercially viable, scalable solutions to key problems in the agricultural sector.
It seeks to drive technology and innovation as a catalyst to enhance productivity, improve yields, and create more jobs within the country’s agricultural sector.
Organised by the Kosmos Innovation Centre in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, the challenge is a seven-month programme that supports young students with innovative ideas in agritech, training, right exposure to the agriculture value chain, and networking opportunity to build and grow viable solutions to Ghana’s key agricultural challenges.
Sustainable agribusiness
The Executive Director of KIC, Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, said the programme was designed to promote more efficient and sustainable agribusiness and support services through technological solutions to farmers.
He said the programme sought to target students and graduates from tertiary institutions across the country. However smallholder farmers form a significant part of the indirect beneficiaries of the KIC programme.
He explained that the challenge uses coaching and market research tours to encourage participants to take a fresh look at the agriculture value chain and identify new areas with potential business opportunities.
“The programme is expected to lead to increased trade, better incomes, and livelihood opportunities, for young people as well as smallholder farmers, while also encouraging youth participation in the agriculture sector,” he said.
Empower young people
The Programme Lead- Agribusiness at Mastercard Foundation, Gottfried Odamtten-Sowah, said the Mastercard Foundation continued to empower young people through its partnership with KIC to support innovative approaches that create economic opportunities within the agricultural sector.
He said through the KIC and the Mastercard Foundation partnership, the challenge expected to train about 4,880 young people across the partner universities in the next four years, collaborating with regional academic partners such as the technical schools.
He said during the first phase of the programme, KIC worked with five major public universities in five regions of the country to recruit participants in their respective regions.
The universities include the University of Ghana in the Greater Accra Region, SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies in the Upper West Region, University of Cape Coast in the Central Region, the University for Development Studies in the Northern Region, and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in the Ashanti Region.