The Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation on 2 May announced the winners of the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech
The prizes were given at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. The award is the first of a series of multiyear, multimillion-dollar innovation competitions and programmes to advance technological progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
NovFeed, a biotech company based in Tanzania, was awarded the US$1mn grand prize for its proprietary technology to upcycle organic waste into nutritious, sustainable, and traceable plant-based protein ingredients and concentrated natural biofertiliser for the food system. The second place was bagged by the Uganda-based company, Karpolax for its nanotechnology solution that helps fruits and vegetables stay fresh longer without losing nutritional value. The US$150,000 award for third place was presented to IRRI-AfricaRice for its biotech innovation to help rice farmers protect their crops from flooding.
Two bonus prizes of US$100,000 each, were also announced at the event. Kuronga, based in South Africa bagged the bonus prize for most creative use of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies for its machine learning and machine vision mobile app, which uses AI to connect farmers with buyers, thus making it easier to validate the quality of crops. COOL LION, a Côte d'Ivoire-based start-up that provides cooling-as-a-service solutions for different industries (agriculture, fisheries, etc.) and powered by renewable energy, took home the People’s Choice bonus prize for the most transformative idea according to the public.
An independent panel of expert judges carefully selected 25 finalist teams to receive US$10,000 to develop and test their innovations to improve economic value for small and medium-sized farms in Africa. Teams also received a variety of special benefits, including participation in a tuition-free, experiential learning programme offered by Global Innovation Catalyst in collaboration with Stanford Online, where they received mentoring from industry experts, pitch coaching, and feedback sessions.
For more information, about the winners of the Prize in AgriTech, and the Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize Programme, visit: https://milkenmotsepeprize.org
