An agricultural robot that roams fields to alert farmers on crop diseases, health monitors for newborns and sensors to keep beehive healthy are on the closer list for a prestigious price for African inventors and entrepreneurs.
This year’s competitors for the Africa Prize of the Royal Academy of Engineering will fight for a share of 85,000 GBP.
The price, which is now in its 11th year, is the largest of the continent to promote innovation to promote. The participants hire the challenges of food uncertainty and renewable energies up to healthcare.
Alumni from the price has collected more than 29 million GBP of funds and investments to develop their inventions.
The selection list for the 2025 price contains a “farm pot” that was designed by the autodidactic Togolese software engineer Sam Kodo and leads through fields that collect data on soil moisture, plant health and pest activity.
According to Kodo, artificial intelligence that is connected to a multi -spectral camera would enable the bot to recognize early signs of infections and infections such as leaf spots or yellowed.
The 30-year-old, who has built robots since he was 10, told The Telegraph: “I have a friend who is a farmer who noticed every year that he had lost half of his harvest production.
“He made me as an engineer to see if I could help and I had the idea of building a robot.”
The farm grade also uses moisture sensors to monitor the level of soil moisture and show farmers where they have to irrigate their harvest.
So far, Mr. Kodo has spent eight months building and testing the robot and hiring it to the farmers.
He now hopes to be able to build 50 more in the next three years and to expand their commitment to rural areas with more farmers.
Engineering and business experts from the academy have selected a selection of 16 candidates from seven countries.
This year’s shortlist contains entries from Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Togo.
In addition to the farm pot, other innovations also include a bracelet-like device that is worn by newborns and monitors the temperatures and signs of fever and transferred real-time data to caregivers and beehive monitors to combat the collapse of bee colony.
Sewu-Steve Tawia, managing partner of the Jaza Rift African Venture Capital company and Richter in the past four years, said that the award had examined both the commercial liability of the inventions and the effects that you would likely have.
The finalists receive business and engineering advice, and many from previous rounds have raised further capital and investments.
He said: “It is always a springboard for many of these companies to get to the next stage, depending on where they start.”
He continued: “This is such a valuable program that I think that this would be more effective if this could be done ten times more.
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