Kenya Startup Ed Fund Private Schools | South Africa Launches Electric Taxi | Ghanaian Agri-Tech Oyster Funded | Google AI And Data Analytics Training Program | Technigerian Dating App | Tramatch, Business Solutions Startup Traction Expansion

Kenya’s Ed Partners secures $1.5m debt funding to fund affordable private schools – Disrupt Africa

Kenyan startup Ed Partners has secured US$1.5 million in debt funding from social impact investor Oikocredit to provide affordable financing to private schools.

Founded in 2018 by Lydia Koros and David FitzHerbert, and currently led by CEO Amos Mwangi, Ed Partners provides financing options for crucial elements of the education system, including infrastructure, technology, and transport. Its impact has already reached over 100,000 students across 350 schools.

The startup, which raised a US$1.9 million funding round in June 2021, provides infrastructural loans to educational institutions to support the construction of new classrooms, washrooms, laboratories and dormitories, as well as the acquisition of computers, buses, vans, and internet connectivity.

Ed Partners has now secured a further US$1.5 million capital in the form of a loan fromOikocredit, a social impact investor and worldwide cooperative that aims to enable people with low incomes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to improve their living standards sustainably. The funds will be utilised to offer more affordable loans to Kenyan private schools. Read more here: 

Electricity Crisis, South Africa Launches Electric Taxi – Tech In Africa

Despite facing a significant load-shedding crisis, South Africa continues progressing towards green energy solutions. A team from Stellenbosch University (SU), a government-owned institution, is examining the viability of introducing the nation’s inaugural electric taxis. These taxis can potentially cover distances of up to 120 kilometres before necessitating a recharge. They are equipped with an electric motor boasting a power of 90 kWh and a battery capacity of 53.76 kWh.

The SU team has successfully transformed a minibus taxi into an electric-powered vehicle in partnership with Rham Equipment. The converted taxi is currently undergoing road testing, with performance assessments planned to follow shortly.

Stephan Lacock, a team member, described the conversion process, which involved removing the original internal combustion engine (ICE) and associated components such as the petrol tank, manual transmission, gas pipe, and radiator. Read more here: 

Ghanaian agri-tech startup Oyster Agribusiness raises $310k funding to scale – Disrupt Africa

Ghana’s Oyster Agribusiness, an agricultural enterprise that employs significant levels of tech and works closely with smallholder farmers, has raised US$310,000 in grant and debt funding to propel its mission of sustainable agriculture, gender inclusion, and talent management.

Founded in 2018, Oyster Agribusiness is dedicated to empowering smallholder farmers through the provision of sustainable inputs, improved agronomic practices, and a reliable market for their produce. It does this using tech to power its input distributions and yield, as well as utilising seeders for planting and drones for spraying.

The company, which already works with 3,000 smallholder farmers, has recently secured a total of US$310,000 in debt and grant funding, which it will use to expand its operations.

Oyster’s debt capital comes from Root Capital, a non-profit lender committed to fostering resilience and prosperity in rural communities, while the startup has also received two grants totalling a further US$10,000. Read more here: 

Google Empowers Nigerian Youth with AI and Data Analytics Training Program – Tech In Africa

Google is making a significant move to boost digital skills, employability, and business growth by revealing a plan to educate 20,000 Nigerian women and youth in digital competencies.

This program is funded by a grant from Google’s charitable division, which collaborates with Data Science Nigeria and the Creative Industry Initiative for Africa . to synchronize with the Nigerian government’s pledge to increase the involvement of young people in the digital economy.

The objective? Addressing youth unemployment in Nigeria by arming participants with the essential digital capabilities needed for the upcoming job environment. Notably, the tech giant already runs the “Grow with Google in Africa” program, partnering with numerous African governments and industry specialists to aid individuals in enhancing their digital expertise for their professions and enterprises. Read more here:

TECHNigerian-founded dating app, Tramatch, launches beta to democratize love – Ripples News

Tramatch, a Nigerian-founded dating app that connects lovers, has announced its beta launch on mobile to democratize how people connect with potential partners. The cofounder and product manager, Ani Okono, made the announcement in a press release forwarded to Ripples Nigeria on Thursday, August 17, 2023.

Founded in 2023, Tramatch.com, according to Ani, is on a mission to address “the age-old human yearning for authentic connections and enduring relationships. Its user friendly service website offers subscribers a novel spin on matchmaking that distinguishes it from traditional dating apps. Read more here: 

Nigerian business solutions startup Traction plans expansion after serving 70k customers – Disrupt Africa

Nigerian startup Traction, a comprehensive business solutions platform designed exclusively for African MSMEs, is planning continental expansion after serving 70,000 customers and banking US$6 million in funding.

Founded in 2020, Traction has developed a comprehensive one-stop platform that enables businesses to accept payments, manage finances, and access essential operational tools. Business owners can accept payments via POS terminals or virtual accounts, use point-of-sale software to record their sales, track inventory, and manage customers through CRM and loyalty solutions.

The platform also offers a range of financial services, including merchant wallets, cash advance loans, savings, and bill payments. Traction obtained a payments solution services license from the Central Bank of Nigeria last year, allowing it to operate as a payment solution provider across various payment categories. Read more here: 

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Image Credit: Image by Tech In Africa

Discover the Breakthroughs

From Controlled Atmosphere Storage that extends the freshness of fruits and vegetables to Freeze Drying, which retains natural flavors and nutrients, these innovations are changing the game. We’ll also delve into the fascinating realm of High Pressure Processing, a non-thermal method that ensures safety without compromising quality. And don’t miss out on the game-changing role of Nanotechnology in Packaging, which prevents spoilage and contamination with its antimicrobial properties.

Reducing Food Wastage, Ensuring Food Security

With the power of these technologies, we’re not only extending the shelf life of crops but also reducing food wastage on a global scale. Learn how these advancements play a pivotal role in ensuring fresh, nutritious produce reaches your plate while also reaching markets far and wide.

Unveiling the Future of Crop Preservation

The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) and sensors into this field adds a new layer of precision and control. Discover how smart sensors are revolutionizing storage facilities, enabling real-time monitoring of temperature, humidity, and other vital factors. This data-driven approach enhances the preservation process and empowers farmers and food processors with valuable insights.

Stay Tuned for More!

Don’t miss out on this captivating journey through the world of technological advances in agricultural crops preservation. Hit that like button if you’re as excited as we are about these game-changing innovations. Subscribe to our channel for more enlightening content on technology, agriculture, and the fascinating intersections between them. Let’s work together towards a future of enhanced food security and reduced food wastage. Share your thoughts in the comments below – we love hearing from you!

Thanks for joining us, and remember – every step towards sustainable food systems makes a difference. Stay curious, stay informed, and let’s embrace the future of agricultural crops preservation together!

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But she has also noticed changes around her farm. There are fewer bees and – most worrying for her – fewer caterpillars, which used to make a delightful dish.

Precious Banda’s story is a perfect example of the situation millions of African farmers face.

Agricultural development is high on the policy agenda of African countries, as seen in the Agenda 2063 of the African Union. But while it’s needed to reduce poverty and hunger, agricultural development often clashes with biodiversity, which is declining at an alarming rate. Losing biodiversity could reduce food security by undermining ecosystem services like pollination, nutrient cycling and maintenance of water supplies. Wild food sources could also be lost.

In a new paper, we as researchers in economics, agronomy and ecology emphasise the importance of biodiversity-smart agricultural strategies. With Precious Banda’s story in our minds, we argue that such strategies need to pay much more attention to agricultural labour dynamics.

Biodiversity and agricultural labour

Biodiversity is lost when agricultural land expands and when farming is more intense. In Africa, 75% of agricultural growth comes from farmland expansion into forests and savannas. This leads to habitat loss and fragmentation. Farming more intensely curtails expansion, but may make the landscape less biodiverse and often leads to the use of more chemicals such as pesticides.

The importance of biodiversity-friendly agriculture is starting to be recognised more widely. But efforts to encourage it often neglect trade-offs with farm labour needs. We argue that neglecting these needs will undermine the success of biodiversity conservation efforts.

Farmers can reduce heavy labour by adopting technologies such as mechanisation and herbicides. For example, our previous research in Zambia showed tractors cut land preparation time from 226 to 10 hours per hectare. And in Burkina Faso, herbicides are referred to as “mothers’ little helpers” because they reduce women’s work in the fields.

But labour-saving technologies can negatively affect biodiversity through farmland expansion, farmland simplification, land degradation and spillover effects. For example, in an earlier study in Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, and Mali, we found that mechanisation sometimes led to the removal of trees and hedges from farms, and changed plot sizes and shapes. This resulted in a loss of farm diversity and of a healthy “patchwork” of habitats. Pesticides can harm soil life, water systems and insect populations if badly regulated and managed, as is often the case.

Biodiversity-enhancing technologies have the opposite problem: farmers often don’t adopt them because they add to the labour burden. Examples include inter-cropping (growing different crops close to each other) and planting basins (shallow indentations in the soil to provide a suitable environment for crops and place inputs). In Zimbabwe, a study noted that planting basins could be labour-intensive without always increasing yields.

Farmers typically adopt technologies and practices that use the least labour and provide high and stable yields, but those can be bad for biodiversity conservation.

What’s needed instead are biodiversity-smart technologies that enable farming with low labour, high yields and high biodiversity.

Biodiversity-smart agriculture

One potential solution is to adapt machines to farm size – and not the other way around. Smaller machinery can easily manoeuvre around trees, hedges and other landscape features that are key for biodiversity.

Combining smart biological solutions (like crop rotation) and mechanical ones (like precision spraying) is a path to lower pesticide use. In our paper, we discuss many other options, too.

For example, in plantation agriculture, tree-islands can improve biodiversity without reducing yields, as shown in a recent study.

Biodiversity-smart technologies reduce the costs (in terms of yield and labour) of biodiversity conservation for individual farmers. That increases the likelihood of adoption. Where conservation comes with higher costs than benefits, financial compensation may also be needed. This could, for example, be in the form of certification schemes or payment for ecosystem services.

Farm-level solutions have to be accompanied by efforts at the landscape level. These might be careful land-use planning and monitoring to preserve biodiversity hotspots and keep habitats connected. Our case study from Ethiopia shows that multi-functional landscapes can be planned to “work for biodiversity and people”.

We argue that biodiversity-smart agricultural development requires a shift in both policy making and research and development. Conservation ecologists must pay more attention to economic and social sustainability. Without accounting for labour issues, conservation efforts are unlikely to succeed. At the same time, agricultural scientists have to embrace multiple goals beyond yields.

Our paper shows that technological, agronomic and institutional innovations for biodiversity-smart agriculture exist. But more needs to be done to scale them. If successful, they can help to feed the growing population, improve the livelihoods of farmers, and conserve biodiversity before it is too late.

Authors:

Thomas Daum, Senior Research Fellow, University of Hohenheim; Frédéric Baudron, Systems Agronomist, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT); Ingo Grass, Professor, Department of Ecology of Tropical Agricultural Systems, University of Hohenheim; Matin Qaim, Director, Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, and Regina Birner, , University of Hohenheim

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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TD Africa – Huawei SME Solutions | Dlocal Boost African E-commerce | Gofree Super Fintech App | Farmtrace Agritech Farm Management Solutions | Customer Data Ban On Loan Apps

Huawei partners TD Africa on solutions for SMEs – The Guardian News

Technology Distribution Company TD Africa has partnered Huawei in creating technology solutions for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The products included Network equipment, storage and Idea Hub. The Huawei Idea Hub provides a range of core productivity tools that promote digital transformation and help build a fully connected world. This was disclosed at TD Africa-Huawei SME product launch in Lagos.

Coordinating Managing Director (CMD), TD Africa, Chioma Chimere, said that the partnership would lead to revolution across Africa as it empowers the ecosystem. She stated that technology is key to bridging the digital divide existing in the world and Africa must embrace it.

“Today Huawei is coming down to the areas where people need to be empowered by bringing technology to them. Huawei is saying that you don’t have to be a big enterprise to own and use technology,” she added. Channel Director, Huawei, Gary Li, said the partnership aims to create more value using the SMEs product to achieve success with customers. Read more here. 

dLocal to Boost African eCommerce Transactions with Innovative Payment Platform – TechEconomy

dLocal, a technology-first payments platform enabling global enterprise merchants to connect with billions of consumers in emerging markets, today announced the official launch of a new all-in-one payment solution to manage global platform payments in one place.

dLocal for Platforms is an end-to-end payment solution for marketplaces, on-demand services, and any other platform business models.“We understand that the payment system in Africa is different and more fragmented,” said Moses Sule, Head of Growth, Africa at dLocal.

“This is why we have dedicated resources to solidify our local footprint and workforce on-ground. Because of our understanding of the terrain, we know the important payment methods that the people in the region want to pay with, and we integrate those. We’ve built a playbook.” Read more here. 

Nigerian fintech startup GoFree launches messaging, payments super app – Disrupt Africa

Nigerian fintech startup GoFree has launched a super app that combines messaging, collaboration, and payment functionality in one platform. Founded in 2022, GoFree is available for download on the App Store and Google Play Store, and allows users to to easily manage their personal and professional lives in one convenient platform. The comprehensive solution offers an all-in-one platform for communication and financial transactions, with a particular focus on meeting the needs of B2Cs, Gen-Z and Millennial users, as well as B2Bs, SMEs and startups.

GoFree is designed to simplify communication and financial transactions by combining multiple functionalities in a single app. With messaging and collaboration features, users can easily communicate with colleagues, friends, and family, share files and documents, and collaborate on projects. The payment functionality makes it easy to send and receive money, pay bills, and manage finances in one convenient platform. Read more here. 

South African agritech startup FarmTrace raises money so it can offer solutions for farm management – Tech In Africa News

FarmTrace, a cloud-based agritech solution that has secured a sizable investment from Secha Capital and Hassium Capital, has made cutting-edge farm management technologies available to farmers in South Africa.

FarmTrace is the only cloud-based farm management tool of its kind in the country. It gives farmers a wide range of tools to help them run their farms. The software lets farmers keep an eye on and run their operations from anywhere in the world. It also gives them an accurate, live picture of their farming operation. This helps farmers improve their yields, make their farms more efficient in all areas, and waste less food, making their businesses profitable for years. Read more here.

Nigerian govt, Google ban digital loan apps from accessing contacts, photos of customers – Ripplesnigeria

The federal government and Google have implemented new restrictions on digital loan apps available on the Play Store platform, aimed at safeguarding users from predatory lending practices. This move comes just a few days after the Federal Government of Nigeria licensed 117 digital loan apps to serve Nigerians.

The new policy, which comes into effect on May 31, also applies to other countries. Google will prohibit apps from accessing sensitive user data such as photos, videos, contacts, precise location data, and call logs.

In a statement released Google explained that the new policy was aimed at addressing issues of misuse of personal data by some loan apps. Read more here. 

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Image Credit: Huawei flagship store in Shenzhen, in China’s southern Guangdong province. (Photo by – / AFP) / China OUT

SA Ed-Tech Injini Partners With Mastercard | Nigerian Fintech Fairmoney Acquires Payforce | Cameroonian Ed-Tech Prepdia Expands | $618m For Young Nigerians In Tech | Swiftvee Introduces Pryswys | World Bank Taps Nigeria Tech

SA ed-tech incubator Injini partners with Mastercard Foundation for the fellowship programme – Disrupt Africa

South African ed-tech incubator Injini has partnered the Mastercard Foundation to launch the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship Programme, which offers selected companies access to funding and other types of support.

Founded in 2017, Injini, which is a member of the UVU Africa Group, is a registered non-profit company that exists for the sole purpose of improving educational outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The only ed-tech specialised accelerator in Africa, its programmes and research via the Injini Think Tank contribute towards its mission to increase the quality, accessibility, and relevance of education in the region.

In partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, Injini is now on the search for innovative ed-tech startups to apply for its latest programme – this time focused on impacting education in South Africa. This initiative, known as the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship Programme, will provide eligible startups with direct grant funding, product quality evaluation and certification, intensive skills development, coaching and mentorship, bespoke market research and market access through Injini’s network of stakeholders across the education innovation landscape. Read more here

Nigerian credit-led fintech FairMoney acquires PayForce in retail-merchant banking play – TechCrunch

Nigerian credit-led digital banking platform FairMoney has acquired PayForce (a sub-brand of YC-backed CrowdForce), a merchant payment service that serves small businesses, as the digital lender looks to broaden its financial services proposition to merchants.

Both startups declined to disclose the terms of the deal. However, according to sources, the transaction was a cash-and-stock deal in the range of $15 million to $20 million. As part of the deal, CrowdForce CEO Oluwatomi Ayorinde joins FairMoney, where he will head the company’s payments business unit: PayForce by FairMoney. Most African consumers and businesses remain financially underserved — and in Nigeria, where 64 million people, according to the World Bank, are underbanked, there’s a massive opportunity to provide access to financial services to both sets of customers. Read more here

Cameroonian ed-tech startup Prepdia expands to Gabon – Disrupt Africa

Cameroonian startup Prepdia, which is helping learners improve their outcomes by reliably connecting them with professional tutors for in-person and online lessons, has expanded to Gabon after seeing impressive growth in its home market.

Founded in 2019, Prepdia helps users quickly and efficiently connect with a vetted, reliable tutor in their local area. So far it has assisted more than 1,200 learners with more than 400 tutors across the country and sold more than 75,000 hours of lessons.

It has also begun its expansion into the rest of Francophone Africa, starting in Gabon, where it already has more than 50 tutors registered. Bootstrapped thus far, the startup is considering raising funds in the near future in order to help it achieve its expansion goals in the region. Read more here

$618m For Young Nigerians In Tech, Creative Sectors As Osinbajo Launches Scheme – The Radiance

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (middle) and African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina (fourth left) with entrepreneurs during the launch of Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (i-Dice) Programme at the State House, Abuja… yesterday

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday, launched a $600 million programme for young Nigerians in the technology and creative sectors with a call on African governments and the private sector to do more to support growth of innovation in Africa.

He spoke at the official unveiling of Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (i-DICE) Programme in Abuja.

The programme is to support young Nigerians, aged 15 to 35, and who are entrepreneurs in early stages in creative, innovative and technology-enabled ventures.

“I think it is now imperative to commence a coordinated approach towards innovation on the continent, bringing together all stakeholders to coordinate efforts at scaling up investments and building programmes that provide the right enabling environment and produce talent pipelines that support the growth of innovation on the continent,” Osinbajo said in his keynote address. Read more here 

swiftVEE introduces PrysWys to help South African farmers reduce input costs – TechinAfrica

SwiftVEE, a South African company that was one of the first to trade livestock, has released PrysWys, an app that will help farmers save money on inputs. PrysWys is a retail service that connects farmers directly to manufacturers of inputs. It is available in the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and the web. In some cases, this can cut costs by almost 50%.

Russel Luck, the CEO of swiftVEE, said that PrysWys was made to stop input costs for farmers from going up in the current economy. “After having a lot of success trading livestock online, we’ve noticed that farmers pay much more for their inputs at traditional stores. We think the best way to solve this problem is with digital technology.

With PrysWys, farmers can list all the products they need for their farms and receive electronic price quotes. Farmers can see prices, get their hands on products, and save money with this app. Read more here

World Bank taps tech to create jobs in Nigeria, others – TheGuardian News

The World Bank has hinged job creation in Nigeria and other parts of Africa on digital technologies.

In its report titled: Digital Africa: ‘Technological Transformation for Jobs,’ released on Monday, the World Bank noted that Africa’s jobs challenge is to put in place business environments conducive to sustainable “good jobs” for its growing workforce.

It noted that Continental Africa’s workforce is estimated to triple by the twenty-second century—from almost 875 million working-age people (ages 15–64) in 2025 to over 2.5 billion by 2100 (UN DESA 2022a). As a result, the bank noted that Africa’s share of the global workforce would increase from 16 per cent to over 41 per cent, surpassing South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific for the largest global share by 2100. Read more here

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Firms Partner To Reduce Cyberattacks | Edtech Accelerator Program | Opportunities In 5G Technology | Agfunder Inviting Agritech Startups | Healthtech Startup Raises $1.65M Investment

Firms partner to reduce cyberattacks – Punch News

Mastercard has partnered with NowNow, a Nigerian digital payment startup to help small and medium-size enterprises to reduce the risk of cyberattacks. According to the firm, there has been a leap in cybercrimes recently.

It stated that SMEs were the main target for cybercriminals since they do not have the resources to help themselves defend against breaches. It said as part of its Start Path Global Programme, it would provide NowNow with operational support, commercial engagement, and the opportunity for strategic investment.

The Executive Vice President, Product Optimisation and Customer Advancement, Cyber and Intelligence at Mastercard, Paul Trueman, said, “As Mastercard brings the next billion people into the digital economy, it is vital that business owners feel as secure and safe from cybercrime as possible. “Our partnership with NowNow is key to achieving this. Whether large or small, businesses deserve the peace of mind to operate knowing that they are being kept safe.” Read more here

CcHUB launches a $15M edtech accelerator program to support startups – TechinAfrica

LAfrica’s biggest innovation hub, Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), has started “The Edtech Fellowship Program,” a $15 million accelerator program. A statement from the company says that it will back and help 72 startups in Nigeria and Kenya for the next three years.

The program’s goal is to increase the impact of edtech startups and help founders who use technology to improve learning in an education sector with many problems.

This report says that about 98 million children and young people don’t attend school in the sub-Saharan region. This is where most children don’t go to school. Even for people in school, the quality of education is terrible. This makes teaching a good place for edtech startups to grow in the region.

The fellowship program will focus on startups in Nigeria and Kenya, two of the continent’s biggest edtech markets. It will pay for solutions beyond tutorial apps and platforms focusing on rote learning. The program will also give startups access to $100,000 in startup capital to use during the program.

The company wants to help edtech startups by giving them access to shared resources like a product development team, government relations team, pedagogy and learning science team, portfolio management team, communication team, instructional design team, and community building team. Read more here

Exploring opportunities in 5G technology –  TheGuardian

With higher multi-Gbps maximum data speeds of up to 10 Gbps, ultra-low latency, increased reliability, massive network capacity, and increased availability, 5G will drive innovation across every sector, industry and transform everything, as we know it. What does this mean for Nigerians and how will it impact our lives, from the software developer based in Lagos to the grandma in the depths of Makurdi.

According to the World Bank, Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.  5G is able to accelerate the democratisation of inclusive and affordable access to quality education, thus leveling the playing field between children in remote villages and children in cities. 5G can help transform education in Nigeria, as students will be able to download learning materials faster and collaborate in real-time. Medical students are not excluded from this educational experience. They can use augmented reality (AR) to dissect cadavers and diagnose illnesses, among other things. Indeed, 5G technology will advance the educational sector in Nigeria by bringing abstracts to life and introducing a new way of seeing the world. Read more here

GROW Impact Accelerator invites applications from African agritech startups – Tech Gist Africa

The GROW Impact Accelerator is currently accepting applications from agri-tech startups based in Africa. New foodtech and agtech firms that are attempting to solve some of the world’s most pressing sustainability issues are being given a huge boost by the GROW Impact Accelerator, which is funded by AgFunder. The accelerator program intends to hasten the development of several solutions for the manner in which we produce, process, package, transport, eat, and discard our food.

GROW believes that founders should receive comprehensive support; businesses succeed when their founders have the commercial, technical, and professional assistance they require to prosper. Founders can tailor their experience within the program’s cohort-based framework by choosing from a variety of thematic “streams.”

The GROW framework questions your value proposition and business model to make sure they are robust, customer-focused, and scalable. Read more here

Healthtech startup, Envisionit Deep AI, raises $1.65M investment – Ripples News

Female-led healthtech startup, Envisionit Deep AI, has raised a $1.65 million investment from New GX Ventures. The female founder, Dr. Jaishree Naidoo, who was in charge of pediatric radiology at a South African hospital, confirmed the funding in a statement on Friday.

The funding follows closely after the startup emerged as the Southern Africa regional winner at the African Startup Awards. New GX Ventures SA is a joint venture between New GX Capital, RMB Ventures, and GIIG Africa. Read more here

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Agritech Africa | Seed Multiplication Partnership | Agric Growth In 2023 | Ajayi Crowther University Seed Tech | Africa Food Production Summit | Agric Supply Chain Efficiency

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Agritech forces gain ground across Africa – CIO

The latest collaborations between African farmers and IT leaders are strengthening agricultural sectors and economies despite ongoing difficulties.

“Land never deceives” is a common slogan of farmers around Africa. Many people go into farming entirely or as a side endeavour, with high certainty that they’ll make money and produce more good for all. And when technology is added to the mix, opportunities multiply.

Having the largest area of uncultivated arable land in the world, sub-Saharan Africa, with a young population—nearly 60% is under 25—and a wealth of natural resources has unparalleled advantages that could double or even triple its current agricultural productivity, according to the Status of Agriculture in 47 Sub-Saharan African Countries, a report the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) jointly published with the International Technology Union (ITU) in March 2022.

Some African countries depend almost entirely on agriculture, like Ethiopia, with 80% of its economy based on it. Jermia Bayisa Lulu, CEO and co-founder of start-up Debo Engineering Agritech, has consolidated his knowledge and experience in computer networking, engineering, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) research to go all in on agritech to solve the problems that affect 85% of community life in his native Ethiopia.

“Our economy is based on agriculture, and I believe it should be further supported by technology to increase agricultural productivity,” he says. “Plus, about 20.4 million people in Ethiopia are in need of food aid, which motivates us to solve the problem of agriculture to ensure the lives of millions of people. The same is true for most African countries that need to be supported by technological solutions.” Read more here

Ellah Lakes Partners IITA on Seed Multiplication – Tribune

ELLAH Lakes Plc. has announced the signing of a Seed Production and Technical Support Agreement between Adani Staple Crop Processing Zone Food Company Limited, a subsidiary of Ellah Lakes and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on a seed multiplication program.

In the first phase, this involves the production of high yielding soybean seed varieties on five hectares of land located in IITA Ibadan, Oyo State and subsequently, on five hundred (500) hectares of land located in Adani, Enugu State.

IITA brings to this endeavour with Ellah lakes, its expertise in the production and supply of high-quality breeder and foundation seedlings to private sector seed producers. The partnership agreement between both companies will facilitate the production of premium quality soybean seedlings for cultivation at Adani SCPZ in Enugu State with IITA providing all the technical support required to produce the seedlings for the company. Read  more here

Farmers yearn for mechanization, and cheap credit to drive Agric growth in 2023 – Business Day

Farmers need mechanisation, irrigation, innovation, and a single-digit interest rate to drive growth in the sector in 2023. According to them, the sector cannot change the fortunes of Nigeria’s economy with attendant exponential gains by way of earnings, employment, food provision, and other spin-offs if smallholder farmers still grow crops using crude implements and depend on rainfall agriculture.

They stated that for the country to attain a high level of food sufficiency and reduce dependency on food imports, it had to improve the level of agricultural mechanisation.

Nigeria is one of the least mechanised farming countries in the world, with the country’s tractor density estimated at 0.27hp/hectare, which is far below the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) recommended tractor density of 1.5hp/hectare.

Nigeria is 132nd out of the 188 countries worldwide measured by FAO/United Nations in terms of the number of tractors in the country. This is one reason farming has been mainly subsistence, rather than commercial.

“Mechanisation is a very critical issue and it must be at the centre of the country’s food security plan,” said African Farmer Mogaji, CEO of X-ray Consulting.

“If farmers continue to use crude equipment, their poverty can never be eradicated. Farmers need to farm and harvest their produce using mechanisation to boost their productivity and profits, thus, impacting their livelihood,” Mogaji said. Read more here

Agric Firm Collaborates With Ajayi Crowther University Seed Company – Tribune

An agricultural company, Jubaili Agrotech Limited is set to collaborate with the Ajayi Crowther University seed company, ACU Seeds, by providing consultancy and products to farmers.

This was revealed when a three-man delegation visited the university on Wednesday to discuss ways that both agric firms would collaborate in rendering services to farmers.

Head of the Technical and Sales Unit at Jubaili, Ali Majeed Selma, who led the team, revealed that the company has chemicals that can protect the plant even before it is planted, stating that both firms would benefit from one another. Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Timothy Adebayo, noted that the university would be willing to collaborate with Jubaili in many ways.

“Our university farm is thriving, and we have a mini ranch, acres of cassava, a nursery, and other things. We can get chemicals from you, and we can also embark on joint exhibitions,” the VC said. Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Prof W.B Akanbi, and ACU SEEDS Breeder, Dr Moses Adebayo, told the visitors that ACU Seeds has a unique maize product that is fortified with Vitamin A and would be launched into the market next month. They stated that the company also has palm, horticultural, and ornamental crops, revealing that it would soon go into the production of other crops. Read more here

Second international summit on food production in Africa to open in Dakar – AFDB

African heads of state and government together with development partners will gather in Senegal to strategically map plans to unlock Africa’s food-producing potential and position the continent to become a breadbasket to the world. President Macky Sall of Senegal, and Chairperson of the African Union, will host the three-day Dakar II Food summit from 25 January, with the African Development Bank Group as co-host.

The agenda of the Summit whose theme is, Feed Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience, is the improvement of Africa’s food nutrition and security; leveraging the continent’s huge agricultural resources; boosting international trade, expanding market share, and production and processing value addition.

The summit will take place at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Center in Diamniadio, 26 kilometers from Senegal’s capital city Dakar. The gathering will showcase programs already contributing to African food sovereignty and resilience. This includes the African Development Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) platform, which is delivering heat-tolerant wheat, drought-tolerant maize, and high-yield rice seeds to 11 million African farmers in 21 countries. Read more here

The tech start-up seeking to untap and transform Africa’s agricultural supply chain efficiency – FoodNavigator

A Nigerian company is aiming to fix Africa’s notoriously fragmented food system and bring profits to African producers.

Lagos-based Releaf is aspiring to make it easier for FMCG manufacturers in Africa to access high-quality ingredients for their factories and has just raised $3.3 million in an oversubscribed Pre-Series A funding round.

Releaf develops technology to enable decentralized purchasing and processing of raw crops to improve profitability and prevent post-harvest loss for the palm oil plant native to West Africa.

The new funding will support the launch of two new technologies. The first is a portable version of its award-winning palm nut de-sheller called (Kraken II). Second is a geospatial mapping application called SITE. This identifies the most optimal positioning of supply chain infrastructure for consumer goods manufacturers, creating an effective link with Africa’s decentralized farming system.

CTO and co-founder of Releaf Uzoma Ayogu said the technologies are the next steps in the company’s plan to fundamentally transform the efficiency of agricultural supply chains in Africa.

“To make food supply chains profitable, we must maximize extraction yields with leading processing technology and minimize logistics costs by bringing processing capacity closer to farmers,”

he said. Before Releaf, he explained, stakeholders had to choose between one or the other – large factories had great technology but were far away, leaving most farmers with rudimentary technology to process their crops.

“We’re now able to maximize both,”

He declared.

The SITE technology used cutting-edge geospatial mapping tools to determine how much oil palm is planted in an area and their annual yields. Alongside Releaf’s proprietary data on soil type, rainfall, farmer productivity and 3rd-party data from organizations like the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture(IITA), Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI),the company said it can deliver a dynamic view of farming activity. Read more here

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Cocoa bean drying

If you’re looking to dry your cocoa beans, there are a few options. You can dry them in the sun, which is quite popular in many countries. When drying cocoa beans in the sun, you should hang them from trees or other structures and ensure they’re not touching each other—this will allow for air circulation and help prevent mould growth.

A more modern approach uses a kiln designed explicitly for drying cocoa beans. These are often heated by gas or oil, but coal is sometimes used as an energy source.

Another way that’s becoming increasingly popular is using a drum dryer—circulating warm air over large drums filled with dried cocoa bean pods at high speeds (often 1.5 meters per second).

Pulverisation

Pulverisation is the process of breaking down a solid into a powder. This can be done in several ways, but it usually involves grinding the solid into smaller pieces with a grinder. The grinder can be stone-based (a stone mill), ball-shaped (a ball mill), or roller-based (a roller mill).

Cocoa mass production

Cocoa mass (also called chocolate liquor or cocoa paste) is the main ingredient in creating chocolate. Making cocoa mass involves removing the fat from cocoa beans and grinding them into powder. This can be done using a hydraulic press, but it’s often done by machine.

The resulting substance is a thick liquid with many uses for making different types of chocolate. It can also be used as an ingredient in other products like the hot cocoa mix, cake frosting and ice cream topping!

Cocoa powder production

Cocoa powder is made by pressing the cocoa mass. The cocoa mass is pressed to remove most of the cocoa butter, leaving behind a dry powder. Then, the remaining powder is sifted and graded for different uses.

Conching

Conching is a process that improves the texture of chocolate by mixing and grinding the chocolate. It can take up to 72 hours, but this is part of why it’s so important: it helps develop the flavour of chocolate. Conching machines are used to mix and grind the chocolate, which leads to more complex flavours being created as well as improved texture.

The most common type is an open-air conching machine because it allows airflow around the product being processed (i.e., your delicious treat). The other type is a closed system because it has no contact with air from outside sources; instead, everything stays inside, where you can watch your food get amazing!

Refining

Refining is the process of removing the remaining fat and sugar from the cocoa mass. The resulting powder is cocoa liquor, which is then dried to make cocoa butter.

The refining process consists of three steps: mixing, pressing and drying.

Tempering and moulding

Tempering chocolate is a process that involves heating and cooling chocolate to form a smooth, shiny appearance. Tempered chocolate has better gloss, snap and sheen than untempered or “bloomed” (underheated) chocolate. You can use tempered chocolate to make moulded decorations for cakes or other desserts and shape chocolate bars like truffles or candy-coated almonds.

Conclusion

The steps above are high-level, but to recap, chocolate is made using various technologies from cocoa beans, which are harvested, pre-cleaned and dried before being pulverised into cocoa mass. The mass is then refined by adding alkali to remove the fatty acids and produce cocoa butter, sugar and other components. The remaining solids are called chocolate liquor or Massa cacao. Tempering is a process that improves the quality of chocolate by giving it a shiny appearance and helping it to melt at body temperature; this reduces its sensitivity to heat fluctuations during storage. Moulding involves filling a mould with chocolate, which is then smoothed over using a spatula and left to set; this process can be carried out manually or using machinery such as automatic confectionery machines.

Food processing is an essential part of our lives. It helps us to get fresh food and also reduces the amount of waste we produce. There are many different types of food processing technologies which are used today. Still, some stand out from the rest because they have been around for so long or because they have been perfected over time by scientists and engineers who have studied them closely. These include pasteurisation, freezing, dehydration and freeze-drying, which are all processes that ensure food has a longer shelf life without compromising on taste or nutritional value.

Next time you pick up that bar, reflect on the chocolate journey.

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This video discusses how agriculture can benefit from AI or ML.

A variety of mechanical and chemical innovations delivered during the 1950s and 1960s represented the third agricultural revolution. The adoption of pesticides, fertilisers and high-yield crop breeds, among other measures, transformed agriculture and ensured a secure food supply for many millions of people over several decades.

Concurrently, modern agriculture has emerged as a culprit of global warming, responsible for one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, namely carbon dioxide and methane.

Meanwhile, inflation on the price of food is reaching an all-time high, while malnutrition is rising dramatically. Today, an estimated two billion people are afflicted by food insecurity (where having access to safe, sufficient and nutrient-rich food isn’t guaranteed). Some 690 million people are undernourished.

The third agricultural revolution may have run its course. And as we search for innovation to usher in a fourth agricultural revolution with urgency, all eyes are on artificial intelligence (AI).

AI, which has advanced rapidly over the past two decades, encompasses a broad range of technologies capable of performing human-like cognitive processes, such as reasoning. It’s trained to make these decisions based on information from vast amounts of data.

Using AI in agriculture

In assisting humans in fields and factories, AI may process, synthesise and analyse large amounts of data steadily and ceaselessly. It can outperform humans in detecting and diagnosing anomalies, such as plant diseases, and making predictions including about yield and weather.

Across several agricultural tasks, AI may relieve growers from labour entirely, automating tilling (preparing the soil), planting, fertilising, monitoring and harvesting.

Algorithms already regulate drip-irrigation grids, command fleets of topsoil-monitoring robots, and supervise weed-detecting rovers, self-driving tractors and combine harvesters. A fascination with the prospects of AI creates incentives to delegate it with further agency and autonomy.

This technology is hailed as the way to revolutionise agriculture. The World Economic Forum, an international nonprofit promoting public-private partnerships, has set AI and AI-powered agricultural robots (called “agbots”) at the forefront of the fourth agricultural revolution.

But in deploying AI swiftly and widely, we may increase agricultural productivity at the expense of safety. In our recent paper published in Nature Machine Intelligence, we have considered the risks that could come with rolling out these advanced and autonomous technologies in agriculture.

From hackers to accidents

First, given these technologies are connected to the internet, criminals may try to hack them.

Disrupting certain types of agbots would cause hefty damages. In the US alone, soil erosion costs US$44 billion (£33.6 billion) annually. This has been a growing driver of the demand for precision agriculture, including swarm robotics, that can help farms to manage and lessen its effects. But these swarms of topsoil-monitoring robots rely on interconnected computer networks and hence are vulnerable to cyber-sabotage and shutdown.

Similarly, tampering with weed-detecting rovers would let weeds loose at a considerable cost. We might also see interference with sprayers, autonomous drones or robotic harvesters, any of which could cripple cropping operations.

Beyond the farm gate, with increasing digitisation and automation, entire agrifood supply chains are susceptible to malicious cyber-attacks. At least 40 malware and ransomware attacks targeting food manufacturers, processors and packagers were registered in the US in 2021. The most notable was the US$11 million ransomware attack against the world’s largest meatpacker, JBS.

Then there are accidental risks. Before a rover is sent into the field, it’s instructed by its human operator to sense certain parameters and detect particular anomalies, such as plant pests. It disregards, whether by its own mechanical limitations or by command, all other factors.

The same applies to wireless sensor networks deployed in farms, designed to notice and act on particular parameters, for example, soil nitrogen content. By imprudent design, these autonomous systems might prioritise short-term crop productivity over long-term ecological integrity. To increase yields, they might apply excessive herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers to fields, which could have harmful effects on soil and waterways.

Rovers and sensor networks may also malfunction, as machines occasionally do, sending commands based on erroneous data to sprayers and agrochemical dispensers. And there’s the possibility we could see human error in programming the machines.

Safety over speed

Agriculture is too vital a domain for us to allow hasty deployment of potent but insufficiently supervised and often experimental technologies. If we do, the result may be that they intensify harvests but undermine ecosystems. As we emphasise in our paper, the most effective method to treat risks is prediction and prevention.

We should be careful in how we design AI for agricultural use and should involve experts from different fields in the process. For example, applied ecologists could advise on possible unintended environmental consequences of agricultural AI, such as nutrient exhaustion of topsoil, or excessive use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers.

Also, hardware and software prototypes should be carefully tested in supervised environments (called “digital sandboxes”) before they are deployed more widely. In these spaces, ethical hackers, also known as white hackers, could look for vulnerabilities in safety and security.

This precautionary approach may slightly slow down the diffusion of AI. Yet it should ensure that those machines that graduate the sandbox are sufficiently sensitive, safe and secure. Half a billion farms, global food security and a fourth agricultural revolution hang in the balance.

Article Author: Asaf Tzachor, Research Affiliate, Centre for the Study of Existential Risks, University of Cambridge

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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Image Credit: Smart farming photo created by user6702303 – www.freepik.com