The “Milken-Motsepe prize in Agritech” was awarded to Tanzanian biotech firm NovFeed, and the company was named the first prize winner. This achievement was recognised with the award of one million dollars.
Karpolax, a company established in Uganda, was awarded the second-place prize of $300,000 after winning the competition. The award went to the young company for its groundbreaking nanotechnology solution, which keeps fruits and vegetable fresher for longer without compromising their nutritional content. In the meantime, IRRI-AfricaRice emerged in third place and won $150,000 for the biotech invention it developed to assist rice farmers in safeguarding their crops against flooding.
The Milken-Motsepe Prize in Agritech is the First in a Series of Multiyear, Multimillion Dollar Innovation contests and Programmes. The Milken-Motsepe Prize in Agritech is the very first of a series of multiyear, multimillion dollar innovation contests and programmes to accelerate technological progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the Milken Institute Global Conference, which took place in Los Angeles, California, the prizes were presented to the winners.
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Other Benefits that can be obtained
Additionally, bonus awards totalling one hundred thousand dollars were given out. Kuronga, a company based in South Africa, was awarded a bonus prize for its machine learning and machine vision mobile app, which was deemed to be the most creative application of technologies related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The system makes use of artificial intelligence to provide quicker crop quality verification while also connecting farmers with customers.
COOL LION, a start-up company established in Côte d’Ivoire, was awarded the People’s Choice bonus prize for having the idea that the general people believed to be the most game-changing. The company offers cooling-as-a-service solutions for a variety of industries, including agriculture, fisheries, and others, and the systems are powered by renewable energy.
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Executive Remarks Following the Award of NovFeed
According to Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe, co-founder and CEO of the Motsepe Foundation, “varied solutions were considered during the competition, and this contributes to current and future efforts to understand and resolve challenges facing agriculture,”
“Making progress towards the SDGs is crucial. We are truly impressed by the participants’ ideas and thank each of them for their dedication to finding viable and scalable solutions.”
More than 3,300 participants hailing from 105 countries and six continents signed up to take part in the Milken-Motsepe Prize in AgriTech shortly after the competition was announced in April 2021. 25 finalist teams were chosen by an independent panel of expert judges to each receive $10,000 in order to further develop and test their inventions with the goal of increasing the economic worth of small and medium-sized farms in Africa. A judging process was carried out, in which each of the teams participated, to determine whether or not their innovation had the potential to boost agricultural productivity and/or reduce post-harvest loss.
Teams were also given access to a range of additional perks, such as the opportunity to take part in a free, immersive learning programme that was provided by Global Innovation Catalyst in cooperation with Stanford Online. During this programme, participants were able to receive mentoring from professionals in their field, pitch coaching, and feedback sessions.
Dr Emily Musil Church, senior director of the Milken Institute Centre for Strategic Philanthropy said, “the winners exemplify the fact that bold, scalable, transformative ideas can come from anywhere.”
“Bringing talent to the fore and supporting entrepreneurs is an intentional goal of the competition. It doesn’t end there. The expanded network of investors and stakeholders built into the program offers the winning teams continued opportunities to innovate and thrive.”