Five AgriTech Ventures Driving the Growth of African Agric

According to Brian Bosire, who runs UjuziKilimo, an agricultural technology company that brings affordable precision farming to smallholder farmers in Kenya, there are a lot of value chain opportunities in agriculture on the continent that young people can explore to improve their livelihoods

November 2, 2018//-African AgriTech is rapidly growing, with the number of startups operating in the market growing 110% over the past two years, and over US$19 million invested over the same period.

Innovation is driving AgriTech in Africa, generating increased productivity, yields and efficiency and we profile five ventures nominated for Best AgriTech Solution at the AppsAfrica Innovation Awards.

Aerobotics

Farming is said to be a risky business, and so the Aeroview application provides meaningful plant-level data to farmers to analyse their crops on a plant by plant basis by suggesting relevant corrective actions all while reducing costs and precious resources. Aerobotics has a mobile app for Farmers called the Aeroview Scout App, by using this software in conjunction with their mobile phones, Farmers are able to locate problem areas with tree-by-tree accuracy.

Farmcrowdy

Farmcrowdy addresses issues surrounding food production, circulation and security in Nigeria by empowering small scale farmers with technology, The Farmcrowdy App is designed to address issues around accessibility, credibility and accountability of investments, making the process of empowering these farmers seamless.  The app makes it simpler for farms to be discovered, activities monitored and payments to be made on time.

Kitovu

Kitovu is an AgriTech company using a data science powered mobile platform that aggregates soil and market demand data. Through facts and statistics, Kitovu identified that the earning potential of most farms in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa is very low due to low crop yields as well as very high post-harvest losses happening between 40 and 60% annually. The market data enables them to tell farmers what varieties and crop specifications to grow so as to guarantee off-take.

TROTRO Tractor

In Ghana, agriculture is the country’s most important economic sector but many farmers lack the tools they need to prosper. TROTRO Tractor is a platform that connects farmers to nearby tractor operators.

The majority of farmers in Ghana need ploughing services but either do not have the tools they need or are unable to easily connect with operators of mechanized tractors to help them do their work.

By using a phone, TROTRO Tractor presents that a farmer can request a tractor service from an individual or company in their vicinity either through text messages or on the platform as to be accessible to farmers even in the most rural areas.

Wefarm 

Wefarm is a service that empowers farmers to access tailored information directly from other farmers through SMS with the technology that they already have in their hands right now – a basic mobile phone.

Their mission is simple – connect every farmer – as they believe farmers know best about farming, particularly what they need and what works for them allowing users to share and access vital information on anything and doing all this without leaving their farm, spending any money or going online. The service has reached over 1.1 million users across Kenya and Uganda.

The AppsAfrica Awards supported by Uber, JET8¸ Syntonic, KaiOS and Mobile Monday South Africa (MOMO) provide winners with industry recognition, global publicity, and networking with 300+ industry peers at the Awards party in Cape Town on November 12th on the eve of AfricaCom. Category winners are also invited to Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2019 to join 400+ tech leaders from across the continent.

By Maria Ukpere

This article was originally published on appsafrica.com

 

 

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