Top innovators from Ghana, India and USA win World Bank, Draper U Agriculture Risk Innovation Challenge

The Agriculture Risk Innovation Challenge for Southern Africa announces its winners with top innovators coming from Ghana, India, and the USA.

Put on by the World Bank and Draper University, the Agriculture Risk Innovation Challenge (AG Challenge) was organized to support agriculture and food risk financing in Southern Africa among three categories.

• Alternative Methods for Measuring Weather Variables
• Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases
• Agriculture Data

The challenge entailed a three-day intensive “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 the following winners:

Predicting or Monitoring Animal and/or Plant Pests Challenge

Winner: Fall Armyworm Alert Service-Satelligence (Ghana)

The system is combating the invasion of fall armyworm in sub-Saharan Africa by providing early warning messages based on satellite technology.

Bring Your Own Agriculture Data Challenge

Winner: CropIn (India)

CropIn is building large and smart datasets through innovative ICT-driven data collection techniques, that enables farmers access to risk and financing instruments.

Alternative Methods for Measuring Weather Variables Challenge

Winner: Arable (USA)

Arable is providing real-time microclimate and crop health data on two time horizons: driving daily farm operations and providing insight into seasonal yields.

Honorable Mentions

The World Bank Grand Jury also acknowledged the high quality of all finalists’ solutions by creating additional Honorable Mentions awards. The following awards go to:

• Injini: Contribute Data Using Social Media (South Africa) – Honorable Mention for Harnessing Social Media
• Saillog (Israel) – Honorable Mention for Accessibility
• eSusFarm (South Africa) – Honorable Mention for Innovative Locally Sustainable Business Model

All the Finalists

The three winners of each challenge and the finalists who received honorable mention awards will get an opportunity to exhibit their proposal work in a report on agriculture innovations by the World Bank and partners, receive free access to InnMind and Draper University Startup Bootcamp 2020 and other prizes that partners and sponsors have prepared.

The 20 finalists who excelled in all categories across the board are mentioned below:

• Community-based Extreme Weather Events Portal (South Africa)
• Injini: Contribute Data Using Social Media (South Africa)
• Arable (US)
• Carpe Diem Solutions (Israel)
• Openagri.ai (Indonesia)
• AIGROEDGE Technologies Private Limited (India)
• Saillog (Israel)
• Yuktix Technologies Private Limited (India)
• GeoPotato (Bangladesh)
• RVF-Zero (Senegal)
• Innosapien Agro Technologies (India)
• Intelligent monitoring, analysis, and early warning system for fall armyworms (Taiwan)
• Fall ArmyWorm Alert Service / Satelligence (Ghana)
• Jaguza Livestock (Uganda)
• eSusFarm (South Africa)
• Satyukt Analytics Private Limited (India)
• The Namib Bee Project (Namibia)
• Aerobotics: Citrus Yield Estimation (South Africa)
• CropIn Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd (India)
• BeCrop, the new layer of functional soil data (US)

The World Bank and Draper University thank all the participants, partners, sponsors and volunteers who contributed to the success of this challenge and made a step towards a positive impact on the most vulnerable sectors in Southern Africa.

The Sociable is an official media partner for the Agriculture Risk Innovation Challenge.