Agritech Call
The Efficiency for Access Research and Development Fund awarded $1.7million in funding to 11 organisations for the development of clean energy agricultural technologies.
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BACKGROUND
Launched in November 2023, the aim of the Agritech Call was to provide support to those developing clean energy agricultural technologies in the areas of: post-harvest management, including harvesting, handling, storage, processing, and transportation, and improvements to food systems in horticulture, dairy, fishing and livestock.
Figures provided by the International Fund for Agricultural Development demonstrate that smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia’s food systems play a critical role by producing approximately 30% of most food commodities. However, 85% of smallholder farmers lack access to energy, with food loss and waste equating to around 37% of all produce in Sub-Saharan Africa. Access to sustainable and affordable technologies such as cold storage or solar-powered drying of produce can support the reduction of food loss and improve access to market.
FUNDING
Eleven successful organisations will use the support to fund their projects which will include field trials to take place in the coming year in a number of countries including Kenya, Tanzania, India and Uganda.
ABOUT THE PROJECTS
The successful projects that received funding were:
- Amped Innovation – developing an affordable direct current solar generator to power agricultural equipment such as milling
- aQysta – conducting a feasibility study on solar drying technology that extends drying time overnight
- CoolVeg Foundation – developing and field-testing forced-air evaporative cooling chambers for the storage of fruits and vegetables
- East African Smart Villages and Rural Mobility – developing an internet-of-things-enabled, solar powered, light electric vehicle cold chain fleet to enhance market access for produce
- Ecozen – Developing a cost-effective Thermal Energy Storage technology for off-grid solar freezers in Africa
- Koolboks – field-testing internet-of-things enabled solar freezers, understanding customer affordability and assessing the viability of cooling-as-a-service
- Productive Solar Solutions – developing high-efficiency permanent magnet synchronous motors to power agricultural machinery in off- and weak-grid areas
- Rural Aquaculture Development – developing a low-cost refrigerated cooling box to transport and store fish in Uganda
- Savanna Circuit Technologies – developing a mobile chiller powered by solar energy, coupled with a centralised ice-water dispensing unit
- Simusolar – developing pay-as-you-go control systems for agricultural processing machines
- Synnefa – developing greenhouse solar dryers with hardware and software components for optimising drying conditions, enhancing affordability and efficiency through a cooperative ownership model
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For more details of each project, please read our Project Spotlight Reports available above.