The Winners Are Selected: Announcing the Final Results of 2020 Innovation Challenge for Food Security & Agriculture Risk Financing in Southern Africa

Irina Ionova -

The Grand Jury of Agriculture Innovation Challenges organized by The World Bank & Draper University has selected the winners of each challenge and also created additional Honorable Mentions Awards to the selected qualified finalists after the 3-day Shark Tank event running from 21-23 April 2020.

The second phase of Agriculture Innovation Challenges, organized to support agriculture and food risk financing in Southern Africa, entailed a 3-day intensive ‘shark-tank’ style online event where the Grand Jury was selecting the top innovators amongst the 20 finalists invited to demonstrate their solutions.

The Grand Jury included the following experts:

  • Cristina Stefan, World Bank
  • Martin Reto Buehler, International Finance Corporation
  • Eric Seyama, Government of the Kingdom of eSwatini
  • Erick Fernandes, World Bank
  • Asra Nadim, Draper University
  • Nathan Engle, World Bank
  • Claire Rhodes, Producers Direct
  • Ricardo Negri, World Bank
  • Jolene Dawson, Accenture
  • Ghislain Aihounton, World Bank
  • Naomi Sakane, World Bank
  • Luis de la Plaza, World Bank
  • Pedro Dozi, Government of Angola
  • Parmesh Shah, World Bank
  • Natalia Olson, RadicalXchange
  • Herve Trebossen, World Bank
  • Nelli Orlova, InnMind

After an extensive discussion amongst the Grand Jury members, the winning places were awarded to the following finalists:

Alternative Methods for Measuring Weather Variables Challenge

Winner: Arable (USA)

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

Predicting or Monitoring Animal and/or Plant Pests Challenge

Winner: Fall Armyworm Alert Service-Satelligence (Ghana)

The system combats 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)

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

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:

The organizers also express their highest gratitude to all the Challenge participants from 33 countries who submitted 120 proposals. 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 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 & Draper University Startup Bootcamp 2020 and other prizes that partners & sponsors have prepared.

Organizers 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.

You can watch the panel discussions and startup pitch sessions here:

Day 1.  Measuring Weather Variables Сhallenge. Part 1

Day 1.  Measuring Weather Variables Сhallenge. Part 2

Day 2. Predicting, Monitoring Animal / Plant Pests Challenge. Part 1

Day 2. Predicting, Monitoring Animal / Plant Pests Challenge. Part 2

Day 3. Agriculture Data Challenge

Read interesting articles in our blog:

✔ TIM DRAPER: «CRISIS IS A GOOD TIME FOR INNOVATION AND VENTURE CAPITAL!»

✔ Pandemic startup support: useful information, links and resources for startups in Europe