On 20th December 2024, UNU-INRA organised the INFoCAT Innovation Award Ceremony at the INRA headquarters in Accra.
This award ceremony was to celebrate the exceptional contributions of 10 young Ghanaian agritech innovators by supporting their startups with $7400 grants.
These 10 young agritech Innovators, who were shortlisted applicants of the INFoCAT Innovation Challenge, came from various parts of Ghana including the Volta, Central and Northern Regions.
Awardees included iSOLAR, innovators of a smart solar powered irrigation system that leverage a 3.5 megawatts solar energy for efficient irrigation for up to 15 acres of farmland within 4-5 hours, Harvest Ease, an organisation into agricultural mechanisation and production of small harvesters, Sunify Solar Dry Technology a start up that specialises in grain and seed drying using state-of-the-art mobile solar mechanical dryers and SAYeTECH, which produces smart post-harvest agricultural machines.
The Award ceremony was attended by representatives of Government ministries including Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Energy, Green experts and Academia.
Innovate for Agricultural Technologies (INFoCAT), is aimed at advancing women and youth economic empowerment through the promotion of low-cost clean energy powered tech solutions in Agriculture. It aims to support the development of clean energy agricultural technologies that are affordable, timesaving and labour-saving. A critical part of INFoCAT is its focus on supporting women-led agritech companies.
INFoCAT is sponsored by International Development Research Center(IDRC), Canada. The project is being implemented in 3 countries: Ghana, Senegal(Partner: Enda Energie) and Côte d’Ivoire(Partner: UNU-INRA Operating Unit).
