“Empowering Innovators: Strategies for Sustainable Agri-tech Solutions

At a 2 day Capacity Building Workshop on “Empowering Innovators: Strategies for Sustainable Agri-tech Solutions,” INRA brought together about 30 green entrepreneurs(shortlisted INFoCAT Innovation Challenge applicants) for training and insights on topics including Green Entrepreneurship, Funding strategies,  Agritech innovations and practical trainings on ways of powering their agritech innovations with renewable energy sources. These workshop participants, were also given the opportunity to be paired with mentors and discuss ways of improving their agritech innovations, to make them bankable and provide value in Ghana’s agricultural sector. 

Innovate for Agricultural Technologies (INFoCAT), is an initiative geared towards advancing women and youth economic empowerment through the promotion of low-cost clean energy powered tech solutions in Agriculture.

The workshop took place at UNU INRA’s headquarters in Accra, International House at the University of Ghana.

During her opening speech, Maria-Ancilla Bombande(INRA Researcher and Gender expert on INFoCAT project), highlighted the importance of  including women in developing green agricultural technologies. She pointed out that, “more women need to develop clean agritech solutions, as they make up a significant portion of the agricultural sector, especially in Africa.”

An Agricultural expert at the workshop, Mr. Yaw Amoah also pointed out the critical need for agritech innovators to adapt their technologies to address existing gaps in Ghana’s agricultural  sector. He encouraged the young innovators to be diligent in their businesses, by focusing on both hard and soft skills needed to succeed in Ghana and Africa’s Agricultural Terrain.”

Eunice Dazugo, an agritech expert from CSIR Ghana, added that ‘looking at the climate and its effect on agricultural productivity, it has become very necessary to push forward the agenda on green technology.” This sentiment further stresses a key element of INFoCAT, a one-of a kind project in Ghana, which not only focuses on investing in agritech innovations, but also stresses the need for these innovations for be clean energy powered. 

This 2 day capacity building workshop is a precursor to a presentation in September 2024, where these shortlisted agritech innovators, will present their solutions to experts. After these presentations, the 30 will be narrowed down to 10 applicants, who will then qualify for grants ranging from $7,400 for technology piloting and fine-tuning -$37,000 for scaling up their inventions. 

INFoCAT is  sponsored by International Development Research Center(IDRC), Canada. The project is being implemented in 3 countries including Ghana, Senegal(Partner: Enda Energie) and Côte d’Ivoire(Parnter: UNU-INRA Operating Unit).