The Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) and Mastercard Foundation have announced fifteen (15) emerging startup businesses in the agri-tech solutions space as ultimate winners of the 2022 AgriTech Challenge Classic.

The fifteen selected teams out of the twenty shortlisted from a total of fifty will move to the next stage of the competition.

Organised by the Kosmos Innovation Center in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, the AgriTech Challenge Classic is a seven-month programme that supports young students with innovative ideas in agri-tech, training, the right exposure to the agriculture value chain, and networking opportunity to build and grow viable solutions to Ghana’s key agricultural challenges.

The fifteen teams are AgroCold, Agyenkwah, Alpha Weeder, AgroEmpire, Green Grow, Dirty Gold, Kigo, Duckweeds Aduanepa, BES Veggie, KoduTech, Plant Aide, Biocul, Premium Coco and Witdeen.

The AgriTech Challenge Classic targets students and graduates from tertiary institutions across the country, however smallholder farmers form a significant part of the indirect beneficiaries of this KIC programme.

AgricTech Challenge Classic uses coaching and market research tours to encourage participants to take a fresh look at the agriculture value chain and identify new areas with potential business opportunities.

The Executive Director of KIC, Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, said the programme is designed to promote more efficient and sustainable agribusiness and support services through technological solutions to farmers.

"The AgriTech Challenge Classic programme is expected to lead to increased trade, better incomes, and livelihood opportunities, for young people as well as smallholder farmers, while also encouraging youth participation in the agric sector,” he said.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Gottfried Odamtten-Sowah, Programme Lead- Agribusiness at Mastercard Foundation said that the Mastercard Foundation continues to empower young people through its partnership with KIC to support innovative approaches that create economic opportunities within the agricultural sector.

Through the KIC and the Mastercard Foundation partnership, the AgriTech Challenge Classic expects to train about 4,880 young people across the partner universities in the next four years, collaborating with regional academic partners such as universities and technical schools.

During the first phase of the KIC AgriTech Challenge Classic programme, KIC worked with five major public universities in five regions of the country to recruit participants in their respective regions.

The universities include the University of Ghana, in Greater Accra, SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, in the Upper West region, University of Cape Coast, in the Central region, the University for Development Studies, in the Northern region, and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in the Ashanti region.

The next stage of the competition is the Agri Tech Challenge Pro, is an accelerator program aiming to support young entrepreneurs to launch and grow commercially viable, scalable solutions to key problems in the agricultural sector.

The program aims to drive technology and innovation as a catalyst to enhancing productivity, improving yields, and creating more jobs within Ghana’s agricultural sector.