A total of 20 finalists took part in a three-day online ‘Shark Tank’ event from 21st to the 23rd April, following which the winners were selected by a panel of judges.
The Agriculture Innovation Challenges were organised to support agriculture and food risk financing in Southern Africa, and the three-day event was a chance for the 20 finalists to demonstrate their solutions.
After an extensive discussion amongst the judges, the winning place in the Alternative Methods for Measuring Weather Variables Challenge was awarded to Arable, from the United States. They impressed the Grand Jury with their innovation providing real-time microclimate and crop health data on two time horizons: driving daily farm operations and providing insight into seasonal yields.
For the Predicting or Monitoring Animal and/or Plant Pests Challenge, the winner was Fall Armyworm Alert Service-Satelligence, from Ghana. Their presentation was for a system that can combat the invasion of fall armyworm in sub-Saharan Africa by providing early warning messages based on satellite technology.
The final challenge was Bring Your Own Agriculture Data. The winner was CropIn, from India, with innovators building large and smart datasets, through innovative ICT-driven data collection techniques, that enable farmers access to risk and financing instruments.
The World Bank Grand Jury also acknowledged the high quality of all finalists’ solutions by creating awarding Honorable Mentions to two South African entries: Injini: Contribute Data Using Social Media for Harnessing Social Media and eSusFarm for Innovative Locally Sustainable Business Model. The third Honorable Mention, this time for Accessibility, went to Israel’s Saillog.
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 and receive free access to InnMind & Draper University Startup Bootcamp 2020.
Recordings from the three-day online event rare available to watch on InnMind’s YouTube Channel.
For more information about the awards, go to World Bank
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