He is an economics expert with some 14 years of experience in the cereals industry.  A few years ago, he co-founded an agritech company focused on the cereal segment. 

Steve Hoda (photo) is a Beninese economist trained at the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences of the University of Abomey-Calavi, where he graduated with a Master’s in Economics in 2009. 

In 2017, he co-founded AfriRice, the agritech company that is now known as AfriCereal Group. His agritech company develops and implements innovative agriculture solutions, with a particular focus on cereal crops. It provides mechanization solutions for agricultural operations, offers technical assistance to farmers, and facilitates the connection of various stakeholders in the cereal industry.

The company aims to simplify agricultural tasks, minimize post-harvest losses, boost agricultural productivity, and improve farmers' incomes. With its solutions tailored to the African continent, AfriCereal Group is committed to providing safe and nutritious food worldwide. It works with non-governmental organizations and government institutions, assisting farmers in their agricultural campaigns from plowing to commercialization. It operates in the West African sub-region, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Benin.

Its CEO, Steve Hoda, is the head of the agriculture commission of She is Great Benin, a program that encourages girls in STEM. He is also the coordinator of the Beninese chapter of the International Alliance for Sustainable Development Goals (AIODD). The agritech entrepreneur is an economic expert for local media outlet Le Soleil Bénin and also in charge of the management of a mini rice mill installed in Kérou, Northwestern region of Benin. 

Between 2010 and 2011, he worked as an assistant to the Deputy Secretary-General for budget/program monitoring and evaluation at the Beninese Ministry of Development, Economic Analysis, and Prospective.

In 2018, AfriRice was celebrated by the FAO as one of the 20 success stories of agricultural innovations able to reduce hunger. The team was also selected by the US African Development Foundation to receive about $100,000 in grants to mechanize agricultural operations in three major rice and soybean production areas in Benin.

Melchior Koba

Cassava is one of the most widely consumed foods in sub-Saharan Africa. It is easy to cultivate and can be processed into many things. It nevertheless faces threats that can be overcome with technology. 

On Tuesday, June 6, smart farm management software provider FarmERP announced the deployment of its FarmGyan platform based on AI, machine learning (ML), and computer vision in Nigeria.

According to the provider’s release, the platform aims to boost cassava cultivation in the country to improve productivity, profitability, and predictability.

"FarmERP [...] brings a specialized focus on helping Cassava farmers by extending the crop life [...] in Cassava plantations up by 40% through its tech-enabled platform," the release said.

Nigeria's cassava industry is the largest in Africa. For several years, the country has been the world's leading producer of cassava, accounting for 21% of global output. However, cassava plantations face several challenges, including the proliferation of pests, the presence of diseases, and extreme weather conditions.

To solve these problems, the FarmGyan platform will digitize the growth path. It will also monitor plants and quickly identify weed infestation by using drone images and AI models. 

The platform will also be able to detect crop and soil moisture, crop water requirements and irrigation, and manage diseases through satellite-based crop health monitoring tools. Overall, FarmGyan will contribute to effective and efficient crop management.

After Nigeria, the company will extend its services to other African countries, notably Angola and Ghana. The aim is to help as many stakeholders as possible to practice Agriculture 4.0 to achieve profitable and sustainable agribusiness.

Samira Njoya

The organization wants to transform the agricultural ecosystem in West Africa. To achieve this, it offers training and workspaces and develops projects to support young entrepreneurs. 

Founded in 2016, Yeesal Agri Hub is an innovative entrepreneurship support organization (SAEI) under the leadership of Awa Caba from Senegal. Its primary objective is to establish an ecosystem and deliver services that foster the economic growth of youth, returning migrants, novice farmers, and rural communities. The organization is dedicated to nurturing the skills and abilities of individuals interested in agribusiness, agritech, and the green economy while eliminating obstacles to entry into these sectors. Furthermore, Yeesal Agri Hub offers shared workspaces, platforms for promoting local products, and supportive environments to ensure entrepreneurs have optimal working conditions.

The organization has developed a dozen projects, including the Sandiara Agribusiness Innovation. This initiative aims to support rural entrepreneurs by introducing them to agroecological practices and assisting women's groups in the processing and marketing of agricultural products.

With partners such as Afric'innov, FAO, the United States Embassy in Senegal, the German Cooperation, and Broederlijk Delen, the hub has invested nearly 300,000 euros in agripreneurship. It has reached almost 1,000 direct targets and supported the design of six agritech tools. 

In December 2022, it was selected to be part of the Rural Impacting Entrepreneurship project developed by the Small Foundation and Village Capital. In March 2023, it was also chosen for the Make-IT Africa project, a one-year program led by the German development agency GIZ, IRESEN (Institute for Research in Solar and New Energies), and impact agency Viridian Africa.

Melchior Koba

Africa has a well-documented agricultural potential. Yet, its farmers struggle in various aspects of their work. This can change with the introduction of technology in the sector. 

TroTro Tractor is a digital solution developed by a Ghanaian startup. The platform allows farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs to rent agricultural equipment such as tractors, seeders, combine harvesters, and sprayers. It was developed by an eponymous startup launched, in 2016, by Adam Muhammed Muhideen and Kamal Yakub to enable easy access to modern, high-quality agricultural machinery that can help Ghanaian farmers improve productivity and maximize yields. 

Through its Android app, farmers and entrepreneurs can create accounts to access the machines available. The machines can be sorted by rental rates, geographical location, and most importantly type of machine.  TroTro Tractor also has a USSD code that allows farmers with no access to the internet or living in remote areas to access its services. 

The startup also offers training on how to use agricultural machines, technical assistance, and maintenance services.  With its maintenance reminders and management reports, it also helps farmers plan and manage their farming operations more efficiently.  

According to play store’s stats, the app has been downloaded just over 100 times. This, however, is not considered a good indication of the popularity enjoyed by the solution since most African rural areas lack internet connection and the USSD code may be the most used option.  

Adoni Conrad Quenum

Data science and artificial intelligence have improved processes and helped optimize results in several industries. Building on the opportunities they present, some Nigerian tech entrepreneurs decided to put them at the service of agriculture and online commerce.

Zowasel is a digital solution developed by a Nigerian startup. It enables smallholder farmers to use technology to improve their productivity, sustainability, and profitability across the value chain. The Lagos-based agritech startup that launched the solution was founded in 2019 by Jerry Oche and Oghenekome Umuerri. It aims to leverage data science and artificial intelligence to validate and secure the agricultural value chains, from farm to market.

To achieve that goal, it developed an Android app, which enables farmers to access its network of agronomy experts who evaluate productivity and strive to improve crop quality to attract good buyers.

Zowasel also checks buyers’ information such as their creditworthiness before connecting them to farmers. "We match buyers and sellers of the same commodity. [...] You decide on pricing and terms together, Zowasel enforces smart contracts and ensures that all transactions are shipped and payments are made after delivery without any issues," the platform indicates.

In 2021, the agritech startup claimed it was working with more than 1.5 million smallholder farmers in northern Nigeria. That same year, it secured $100,000 in funding from Guinness and Prosimador at the Zero Hunger Sprint 2021, an event held in Lagos and supported by the World Food Programme. Although it has launched operations in the Niger Delta to support smallholder farmers there, expansion outside Nigeria is not yet on its agenda.

Adoni Conrad Quenum

He is a talented and determined innovator who is applying his engineering and scientific expertise to solving the agricultural challenges faced by farmers in developing countries.

Youssef Benkirane (photo) is a Moroccan entrepreneur who graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne with a master's degree in engineering, management, and entrepreneurship. He also holds a master's degree in general science and strategic management from CentraleSupélec. In 2022, he co-founded the agritech startup Terraa, which he oversees as the CEO.

The startup leverages innovative technologies to source fresh produce from farmers and deliver it to retailers within hours, connecting farmers with retailers, restaurants, and service providers. Its technology platform enables farmers to earn higher incomes and ensures consistent demand for their products while providing retailers with high-quality goods at competitive prices.

It also reduces food waste and decreases greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater use, and land use, contributing to a more environmentally friendly food supply chain.

In a round led by FoodLabs, a European venture capitalist and food, sustainability, and health research studio, Terraa raised US$1.5 million in pre-seed funding on February 14, 2023. Other investors in the round included UM6P Ventures, Outlierz Ventures, Musha Ventures, and DFS Lab.

"In the next few months, we will build some collection centers in all the major agricultural cities of Morocco. We will use them to store the produce collected from the farmers for distribution to the end customers," Youssef Benkirane told TechCrunch after the funding round.

Since 2021, the tech entrepreneur is an advisor for the decentralized autonomous organization MakerDAO. His professional career started in 2014 when he joined Rolex as an industrial engineer. Concurrently, he was a software engineer for luxury goods retailer Richemont.

In 2015, he was hired by the food and beverage company Try The World as a growth and data manager. Two years later, he joined Argon & Co, a Paris-based management consulting firm, as a senior consultant. In January 2019, he was named a senior partner at the consulting firm Bain & Company, and in December of the same year, he became a consultant at the firm. From 2021 to the creation of Terraa, he was the general manager of Zapp, a grocery retail company.

Melchior Koba

He is a visionary entrepreneur who focuses on quality and innovation to improve local food systems and provide healthy and affordable food to the population. He founded two start-ups that serve his goal of developing the agricultural sector in Africa.

Shikama Dioscore (photo) is a Rwandan entrepreneur who graduated from the National University of Rwanda with a bachelor's degree in plant biology and conservation in 2012. He is also the founder and CEO of the food distribution startup Food Bundles.

His startup, founded in 2020, wants to optimize the fresh distribution chain in urban areas while creating a resilient and sustainable marketplace for small-scale farmers. Its digital platform specifically connects farmers with buyers in urban areas.

In 2011, he founded AgriGo, another agritech company that helps farmers improve yields.

With an AgriGo account, farmers can access information on virtually any topic that directly affects their day-to-day business. The startup also provides a management platform for agricultural cooperatives that have to manage thousands of farmers. Using its platform, financial institutions can also inform farmers of financing opportunities. 

Shikama is one of the founding members of Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness Forum (RYAF), a forum that aims at "promoting and advocating the business of youth who are involved in farming." From 2016 to 2022, he headed the forum's Information and Communication Technology for Agriculture (ICT4Ag) cluster. As such, his work included " engaging the right partners to stimulate the use of ICT4Ag, and develop the youth who are creating technology solutions to boost farming and the agriculture value chain in general."

The Alibaba eFunders fellow (2017) was one of the founding members of the Rwanda Young ICT Entrepreneurs Association, which aimed to inspire "tech Entrepreneurship among young Rwandans, develop strong business and interpersonal skills, and thus facilitate the creation of jobs in Rwanda’s Technology space." He remained a member of the association from 2012 to 2021. Between 2011 and 2012, he was a reporter and Kinyarwanda translator for the Rwandan multimedia company IGIHE.

Melchior Koba

On January 5, 2023, Algerian team SevenG won the second prize in the finals of the global competition organized by Huawei. It won the prize thanks to its AI tool that automates farming. At a time when food insecurity is hanging over millions of people all over the world, the seven students who launched the tool believe that it is an efficient and less restrictive solution to make farming more profitable. In an interview with We Are Tech, they present their ambitious project.

What inspired you to launch FarmAI?

We were inspired by the food insecurity affecting Algeria and several countries in the world. We decided to develop an IT system, combined with other tools, which would help create a smart farm, monitor crops, identify pests, build a smart irrigation system, and monitor weather changes. The main idea is to quickly detect and efficiently respond to diseases affecting farms.

How does your solution work?

The early wheat rust disease detection system combines artificial intelligence and drones to monitor wheat fields. The drone flies around the field every 4 days, capturing images of the plants with its camera. This data is then transferred to a deep neural network that performs image classification and analysis to identify possible infections. If a set of data points at a high infection probability, the system will alert the farmer through a mobile app and backend system, allowing the farmer to take the necessary actions to preserve crops and avoid financial losses.  

We already have audiences with the Ministries of Economy and Agriculture. They will help us either partner with local drone manufacturers or purchase our drones. In both cases, the great support offered by the President of the Republic to agritech and startups is a real opportunity.  

Why did you choose artificial intelligence to power your solution?

We didn't choose to use artificial intelligence (AI) because it's a trendy technology or something like that, but our problem requires a lot of effort, time, and money. So, as we all know, AI improves the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of human actions. Those are the reasons we chose AI for our FarmAI project. At this stage, we are using AI in two key functions which are computer vision and the automation of drones that monitor farms, process images and classify them.

Given the potential of artificial intelligence, why limit the solution to the identification of wheat rust only?

At the beginning of the Tech4good competition, our idea was to develop a system that would help reduce losses in farms and ensure food security in our country. But, as we were time-limited and our project was focused on a specific feature, which is the detection of rust disease, even before the competition, our mentors advised us to pursue this feature. Nevertheless, we plan to add other features, including pest detection and the detection of other diseases. We plan to deploy our solution in more farms.

Our focus on wheat rust stems from the position of wheat in the Algerian economy. Algerians consume more than 100 kilograms of wheat yearly. The country produces and exports the commodity, which is a great source of income for households and the whole country. Our solution helps address food and economic issues not only in Algeria but also in the whole world.

What are SevenG's plans for FarmAi after Tech4Good?

The next step is to test our solution. We have already spoken with farmers and most of them are interested. The solution has been developed in such a way that it is easy to use even for non -tech-savvy individuals. Since most farmers are already using smartphones, they only have to check the reports since everything that has to do with drone calibration, launch, and data analysis is automated.

Once we are done with the testing phase, we will offer free trials to farmers to convince them of the usefulness of our solution. Then, we will seek investors to quickly develop our business and get more clients.

She is a passionate entrepreneur who wants to give back control over the entire food value chain to significantly reduce crop losses in Egypt. With her brother, she developed a tech solution for that purpose.

Farah Emara (photo) is the CEO of Egyptian agritech startup Freshsource, which she launched with her brother Omar Emara.

Her startup leverages data and tech tools to transform the lives of producers, businesses, and consumers by creating sustainable food systems. It was launched after its two co-founders realized that in Egypt, food security is jeopardized because close to 30% of crops are lost due to poor post-harvest, storage, and transportation conditions. They also noticed that the high number of intermediaries in the supply chain and the lack of transparency generate an about 80% income shortfall for farmers. 

Therefore, with over 80 employees, the startup launched in Cairo, in 2018, manages the entire fresh food value chain, including transportation, storage, and packaging in cold storage and appropriate facilities. It buys from farmers at consistent prices and sells the products at reduced rates. Nowadays, it serves clients in 11 cities in Egypt, with the aim of becoming the leading agricultural supply chain platform in the Middle East and North Africa region and changing the way fresh produce is bought, transported, and sold. It has already transported more than 10,000 tons of produce and claims over 1,000 deliveries weekly.

"FreshSource is disrupting the Egyptian agriculture industry by streamlining the value chain through technology. We are the region’s first B2B platform for fresh fruits and vegetables, connecting producers to businesses by leveraging data and technology and providing last-mile solutions," Farah Emara said in 2022.

 Before founding FreshSource, between 2012 and 2016, she worked for Endeavour, a global community of high-impact entrepreneurs, as an entrepreneur selection and growth analyst and then as an entrepreneur selection and growth manager. In March 2016, she joined the consumer goods company Procter & Gamble where she worked as a Strategic Business Manager for the Middle East until 2018.

Let's note that her startup is among the 14 businesses selected for the 2023 Africa Tech Summit (February 15-16).  In 2022, she received the Digital Agriculture Award of the year, issued by the World Bank and the IFC. 

Melchior Koba

The solution aims to help farmers and fresh produce farmers quickly sell their products while ensuring farm traceability. 

Mahaseel Masr is a digital solution that connects farm owners with buyers looking for fresh products. According to Mohamed Abdel Rahman, founder of the startup behind the app, "demand for first-rate fruits and vegetables at competitive prices is showing strong growth, driven by a global rapid population increase and raised digital awareness, in addition to a demanding need for global supply chain stability." Therefore, the solution wants to facilitate secure and reliable transactions while ensuring farm traceability.

Through its Android app, the solution allows buyers and sellers to create their accounts and carry out business transactions. Buyers must type the product they need into the search bar and choose the farms offering such products depending on the location.

Mahaseel Masr claims more than 28,000 member farms and more than a million tons of crops harvested and sold. On Play Store, its Android app has been downloaded more than a hundred times.

Adoni Conrad Quenum