SAYeTECH tackles ‘the everyday struggles of smallholder farmers’ through smart machinery development

Smart farming equipment has actually traditionally been the domain name of massive ranch procedures that can manage the price that typically includes such tools.

Jeffrey Boakye Appiagyei and the group at Ghana-based SAYeTECH take a various strategy to ranch automation: “We’re committed to taking on the day-to-day battles of the smallholder farmers,” he informs AgFunderNews

SAYeTECH integrates equipment and Net of Points (IoT) ingrained systems to develop devices certain to Africa’s smallholder farming areas. Presently this consists of a cacao shuck damaging maker, a grain clothes dryer and a multi-crop thresher, among others.

For Appiagyei et cetera of the business, the objective is not practically dealing with the normal variety of labor concerns such as performance. It’s likewise concerning offering tasks for young people and maintaining kids in the class that would usually taken out of college to assist with the harvest.

” At the heart of SAYeTECH is the objective of encouraging areas to flourish and develop strength beginning with making sure that kids can remain in college,” he claims.

SAYeTECH increased a $100,000 seed round led by AgFunder this year and is presentlyparticipating in the AgFunder GROW accelerator program [Disclosure: AgFunder is AgFunderNews’ parent company.]

AgFunderNews lately overtook Appiagyei to get more information.

For a lot more on arising start-ups and campaigns in Africa, look intoAgFunder’s Africa AgriFoodTech Investment Report 2024

AgFunderNews ( AFN): What issue does SAYeTECH resolve?

JA: SAYeTECH is committed to taking on the day-to-day battles of smallholder farmers, specifically in Ghana.

For as well long, farmers throughout Sub-Saharan Africa have actually dealt with reduced performance, considerable post-harvest losses, and restricted accessibility to information that can assist them make far better choices.

By producing IoT-enabled equipment and information services, we’re aiding farmers simplify their procedures, increase their returns, and make notified options, which not just boosts their revenue however likewise reinforces food protection in their areas and enables kids to remain in college rather than servicing ranches.

On a wider degree, the information understandings we collect via our IoT tools give important details to huge organizations and firms in the farming field. These companies can utilize our information to get a much deeper understanding of plant cycles, performance fads, and local farming problems, allowing them to make critical choices that enhance supply chain performance, advertise sustainability, and assistance de-risk farming.

AFN: What was your initial inspiration behind beginning the business?

JA: My founder, Theodore [Ohene-Botchway, CTO], and I began SAYeTECH with a vision to change farming in Africa and to maintain kids in college.

Years back, I worked as a student educator and missionary in a country Ghanaian area without electrical energy. Throughout the harvest periods, I saw moms and dads drawing their kids out of college to work with ranches, regardless of the kids’s hesitation. This struck me deeply, recognizing that an absence of accessibility to automation in farming was compeling kids far from their education and learning.

I shared my interest in Theodore, that has actually been my buddy from university, and with each other, we determined to act. With my history in farming design and his in mechanical design, we laid out to develop functional, available devices to sustain farmers and assist children remain in college.

We intended to develop modern technology that would certainly assist them raise performance, adjust to the obstacles of environment modification, and inevitably enhance their incomes. At the heart of SAYeTECH is the objective of encouraging areas to flourish and develop strength beginning with making sure that kids can remain in college.

AFN: Informs us concerning a couple of significant landmarks for the business so far.

JA: To day we have actually produced over 180 items of farming tools and are presently offering over 17,000 smallholder farmers in Ghana, Nigeria, and Niger.

Additionally, establishing our IoT-enabled cacao shuck breaker is a big jump for us, and it is a game-changer for cacao farmers and various other stakeholders in the cacao worth chain.

Raising $100,000 in Seed financing from AgFunder verified our vision, and releasing area tests with farmers revealed direct exactly how our modern technology can make a huge distinction.

We have actually likewise developed collaborations with companies like United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and International Development Enterprises (iDE), which have actually aided us get to a lot more farmers and broaden our influence.

AFN: A couple of vital obstacles?

JA: Financing has actually been a vital obstacle, though we have actually made appealing strides.

The current financing we got enabled us to increase manufacturing, increasing our earnings contrasted to in 2015, a clear indication of expanding need and market capacity.

Nonetheless, we’re still just able to satisfy 17% of our existing orders. This suggests lots of farmers that desire and require our services are still waiting. With extra financial investment, we can substantially broaden our manufacturing capability, get to even more areas, and totally utilize our modern technology to sustain lasting development and boosted performance throughout the farming field.

There’s an incredible possibility in advance, and we aspire to climb to the difficulty with the ideal sources in position.

AFN: Just how did you link with the GROW accelerator program? Why Asia?

JA: We were attracted to expand due to its solid concentrate on agrifoodtech and its dedication to sustaining firms with worldwide development passions.

Asia is especially fascinating to us since it encounters most of the exact same farming obstacles as Africa, such as the demand for lasting services for smallholder farmers. Via GROW, we intend to gain from Asia’s experience, develop collaborations, and discover brand-new market possibilities that can assist educate and enhance our influence back home.

AFN: What’s following?

JA: To obtain our IoT-enabled equipment right into the hands of even more farmers.

We intend to release a minimum of 1,000 devices to assist tools proprietors, consisting of farmers, increase their performance and adjust to altering problems.

Excitingly, our IoT service isn’t restricted to farming, offering us a bigger market to discover. Presently, we have an order for 50 IoT devices from a mining business and thousands of letters of rate of interest from various other prospective customers.

We’re likewise concentrated on boosting our information analytics to make our understandings much more impactful. Inevitably, we intend to make a long-term effect on farming throughout Africa and past, aiding farmers flourish and add to resistant food systems almost everywhere.

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