The 2017 AgriTech Challenge begun with 16 teams presenting at the first pitch, eleven at the second pitch and finally six at the finals last Friday.

The competition has been a nine-month long journey with the teams going through a plethora of intensive trainings to help them to formulate viable and scalable businesses within the agribusiness sector.

Final contestants

The six teams – AgriInnova, Qualitrace, Unlimited, Rent-a-Farm, CompleteFarmer and AgroSeal – have formulated business concepts covering track and trace technology to authenticate product inputs and outputs; a logistics and transportation services platform to connect fruits and vegetables’ aggregators and large scale farmers, as well as a digital land mapping technology marketplace providing potential farmers with arable lands with much convenience.

Other concepts are an enterprise mobile and web based management system for poultry farm management; livestock management software that identifies and tracks health status of individual livestock, and a practical, personalised and customised agribusiness solutions service for an identified niche market of individuals.

This year’s challenge asked the contesting teams to come up with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) before last Friday’s final pitch.

The objective was to ensure that they had viable products which could be tested out among potential future users and customers.

“This idea has been very useful as all the teams have had the opportunity to validate their products as expected. We intend to continue with this trend in the next round of the challenge in 2018,” the KIC communications team said.

Panel

The panel of judges selected from different fields of expertise will evaluate the teams based on the strength of their business concepts, management skills, team dynamic and entrepreneurial spirit.

The winners of the ultimate prize money of $50,000 plus an all-expense paid one-year incubation at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) will be formerly announced at the end of August this year.

Remarks

Kosmos Energy’s vice president and country manager, Mr Joe Mensah, opened the final pitch, saying: “The Kosmos Innovation Centre has exposed the young entrepreneurs to so many opportunities in the agricultural value chain that, independently, they can effect changes in the space. 

“We encourage all the teams not to let the resources spent on them go waste. The agriculture sector offers plenty opportunities for young people to apply their knowledge and skills in innovative ways that can make a difference for Ghana.”

He also encouraged the participants to go out and impact the country’s agricultural sector to reflect the time, money and resources invested in them for the past nine months.

KIC’s remit

The Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC) is Kosmos Energy’s flagship social investment programme in Ghana, which established online presence from inception at www.kosmosinnovationcenter.com and on facebook.

It uses innovation to create and apply commercial solutions to development challenges, starting with agriculture.