Digital Agriculture in LMICs - 28 Mar #8
Microsoft releases FarmBeats sequel for data driven agriculture, Walmart Foundation starts new grants in India, as tech start-ups join forces to support farmer mental health
20/03/23
Microsoft releases Azure Data Manager for Agriculture
Microsoft has released Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Agriculture in a bid to support organisations looking to build digital agriculture services for farmers. Azure Data Manager for Agriculture is an evolution of Project FarmBeats, which Microsoft started in 2015. It is a commercial application that uses analytics and farm data from disparate sources, enabling organisations to build solutions for soil health management, weather monitoring and forecasting, waste tracking and carbon sequestration. Besides this proprietary solution, which is being used by organisations such as Bayer, Microsoft has also open sourced it agritech toolkit Project FarmVibes to enable data-driven farming in low-and-middle income countries.
22/03/23
Walmart Foundation announces digital agriculture grants in India
Walmart Foundation has announced two new grants to improve the livelihoods of Indian farmers working with farmer producer organizations (FPOs). The Foundation is giving USD 3 million to non-profit TechnoServe to reach 24 FPOs and 30,000 farmers (50% women) in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. It is also awarding NGO Trickle Up USD 534,000 to reach 1,000 women farmers in Odisha, connecting them with two FPOs. The objective of these grants is to expand access to markets and to train farmers on sustainable farming methods and digital technology. The grants are part of a new five-year strategy by Walmart Foundation that aims to reach one million smallholder farmers in India by 2028, with at least 50% women.
23/03/23
Agribid and Mahadevasth Tech join forces for emotional wellness of Indian farmers
Indian agritech Agribid, an end-to-end market linkage platform connecting farmers and farmer producer organizations (FPOs) with buyers, has partnered with Mahadevasth Technologies, a tech company that specialises in emotional wellness. The objective of the partnership, which targets 300 FPOs and 250,000 farmers, is to raise awareness about mental health issues among farmers. Mahadevasth Tech will provide advisory on mental health issues, physical health as well as additional information on government schemes and financial inclusion and planning. Mental health and agrarian suicides are a challenge in India’s agriculture sector. According to 2020 data, persons engaged in farming sector made up for 7% of total suicides in India, often due to overwhelming debt.
In other news…
13/03/23
Two agritechs selected for Google’s African accelerator for women-led start-ups
Two agritechs have made it to the cohort of 15 women-led startups selected to participate in the Google For Start-ups Accelerator Africa: Women finders programme. The two agritechs are Farmer Lifeline (Kenya), a provider of crop pest and disease detection devices, and Smart Ikigega (Rwanda), a market linkage solution that also provides access to loans, insurance and digital payments. The programme is designed to bring Google’s expertise, products, and technology to women-led tech startups up to Series A stage, based in Africa or building Africa-centred solutions with technology.
20/03/23
BIC Africa targets African women entrepreneurs addressing the SDGS
Applications are open for the BIC Africa Acceleration Programme for Women Entrepreneurs targeting 15 women innovators from Angola, Comoros, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Somalia, plus five others from across Africa. The programme is interested in innovators addressing one or more Sustainable Development Goals, including those implementing technology solutions. The programme offers online training, participation in group coaching, mentoring with incubation experts, and connections with the programme’s alumnae network. Funded by the European Union, BIC Africa is a regional network supporting business incubators. Applications are open until 7 April.