Information and Communication Technology solution developers are tussling it out at kLab, Rwanda’s first innovation hub, on the best ways ICT can empower the agriculture sector. 

This is part of the ongoing conference in Kigali convened to deliberate on ways agriculture can leverage ICT to enhance marketing. 

The competition, dubbed "ICT4ag” (ICT for agriculture), seeks to promote application of technology in the agriculture sector with an emphasis on value chain, advocacy and policy development. 

The challenges the developers are tasked with include coming up with solutions for the bidirectional sharing of information between farmers and extension officers and devising a solution that would enable farmers to access finance with ease. 

The participants comprise nine groups from Uganda, Madagascar, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. 

The winners, who will be announced today after the presentation of solutions, will bag Euro 5,000 (about Rwf4.5 million) and six-month incubation and mentoring that will enable them turn their ideas into businesses. 

First and second runners-up will receive Euro 4,000 (about Rwf3.6 million) and Euro 3,000 (about Rwf2.7 million), respectively. 

Brief profiles of the participants

Rwanda is represented by Fertiliser Logic, a team of four University of Rwanda College of Technology (former Kigali Institute of Science and Technology) students who won national competition. 

The team comprises Hillary Muramira, Prince Dukundane, Robert Basomingera and Oigane Ingiraneza.

The group’s solution is in two components; hardware and software, which would aid farmers determine the nutrients composition in the soil in real time. The device, once put in the soil, can detect the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in it.

Uganda is represented by Ensibuuko, a team of five from Outbox hub, who have developed an application to improve access to finance for people in remote ares.

The application makes it possible for them to acquire small loans and pay back loans with ease by text message service. 

Uganda’s other participants, Agripreneur, aims at connecting and harmonising key youth stakeholders in East Africa by providing a platform that will allow them to interact and collaborate in agricultural projects. 

Kenya’s team of five, Farmdrive from C4DLab, an innovation hub in Nairobi, seeks to ease access to financial services by acting as a disruptive platform that bypass traditional lenders such as banks and connecting farmers to investors. Through the application by Farmdrive individuals seeking to invest in farming can invest their income with small scale farmers interested in commercial farming. 

Kenya’s second team of two, Horizon Telemetry, will be presenting an automated weather station that could collect wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity and rainfall and relay them to the farmer via text message. 

The group is not officially competing; only engaging for motivational purposes.  

Kenya’s third group, Kosmerc, has an application to collect information and data from research institutions and for the farmers use during planning and determining favourable crops. 

Tanzania is represented by two groups Agrinfo and Coagri. The former provides a web-based and mobile platform to be used in mapping farms, while the latter provides a platform for farmers to collect and share crop information via mobile phones. 

Madagascar is being represented by the Group Highhay with an innovation that will enable farmers share information regarding farm management and planning. The innovation targets people interested in farming but have little know-how. They would rely on SMS notification to access information they require. 

Agrivas, from Ethiopia, constitutes two members from Iceaddis, the country’s only innovation hub. They are presenting an information resource centre for farmers which will deliver information via radio, SMS and Internet. The group approaches information provision from all angles to cater for the illiterate.