SAYeTECH’s ‘practical, accessible’ approach to mechanization ‘a no-brainer’ for Africa’s smallholder farmers

[Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company AgFunder is an investor in SAYeTECH.]

In Jeffrey Boakye Appiagyei’s very own words, his firm SAYeTECH deals with “the day-to-day battles of smallholder farmers.”

Africa is home to some 33 million smallholder farmers that add around 70% of the continent’s food supply. In spite of the main duty these farmers play in the food system, they often do not have accessibility to training, automation, and information that might boost performance and effectiveness. Absence of automation, consequently, assists perpetuate the cycle of hardship along with taking kids far from useful academic possibilities.

SAYeTECH addresses one particular component of this formula: post-harvest losses, which the firm states can affect performance, return, and inevitably source of incomes.

” Minimal accessibility to budget friendly equipment pressures farmers to depend on out-of-date devices, decreasing performance and revenue,” Appiagyei just recently kept in mind when profiled for AgFunder’s 2025 Developing Markets AgriFoodTech Investment report.

” SAYeTECH is resolving this trouble by establishing cost-efficient, clever sensor-enabled farming equipment that improves effectiveness, decreases losses and enhances food safety in these areas,” he informs AgFunderNews

Absence of automation ‘forcing kids far from their education and learning’

For Appiagyei et cetera of the group, bringing automation to smallholder farmers isn’t nearly enhancing returns and effectiveness, however.

” My founder, Theodore [Ohene-Botchway, CTO], and I began SAYeTECH with a vision to change farming in Africa and to maintain kids in institution,” states Appiagyei.

The vision emerged years back, when he functioned as an educator and missionary in country Ghana, where he experienced kids needing to leave institution throughout harvest periods to aid their moms and dads.

” This struck me deeply, understanding that an absence of accessibility to automation in farming was compeling kids far from their education and learning.”

An illiteracy adds to the cycle of hardship these smallholder farmers encounter. Appiagyei and Ohene-Botchway figured out that the very best means to damage this cycle would certainly be to supply “useful, obtainable devices” that might enhance performance and at the very same time make it possible for kids to remain in institution.

” At the heart of SAYeTECH is the objective of equipping areas to prosper and construct durability beginning with making certain that kids can remain in institution,” states Appiagyei.

Using ‘clever’ equipment to post-harvest methods

Presently, the ordinary African smallholder farmer utilizes a handful of handbook devices (e.g., cutlasses, mattocks, also sticks etc.) to perform post-harvest tasks like threshing, cocoa-pod splitting, and drying out of grain grains.

SAYeTECH’s offerings consist of a range of makers geared up with Web of Points (IoT)- ingrained systems to make them “clever” and therefore enhance the effectiveness of procedures.

” Standard threshing and handling approaches are lengthy, labor-intensive, and lead to grain losses of as much as 30%,” clarifies Appiagyei. “Minimal accessibility to budget friendly equipment pressures farmers to depend on out-of-date devices, decreasing performance and revenue.”

For instance, hand-operated threshing typically calls for added labor to aid different seeds from plants, and can take weeks to finish. SAYeTECH uses a multi-crop thresher that mechanically manages the task, easing smallholders’ labor problems and expenses at the same time, and finishing the job in an issue of hours.

The firm likewise presently uses a cocoa-pod-breaking device and a grain clothes dryer, in addition to style solutions for design establishments making items.

” SAYeTECH, by developing clever equipment for farmers, is extremely well placed to unlock income and scalability for countless farmers in Africa,” neighborhood capitalist Ing Kakra Sersah kept in mind in AgFunder’s record. “It was and has actually constantly been a piece of cake that it will certainly do well. That is why I backed it early.”

‘ Encouraging strides’ for fundraising in 2025

The last couple of years have actually been “both difficult and satisfying” for SAYeTECH, states Appiagyei.

The firm joined AgFunder’s GROW accelerator program, elevated $100,000 in seed financing, and released area tests with farmers to display the advantages of its makers to farmers.

SAYeTECH presently deals with farmers throughout Ghana, Nigeria, and Niger.

Financing continues to be something of a difficulty for the firm, states Appiagyei, though SAYeTECH has actually “made encouraging strides.”

” There is raising assistance from capitalists and accelerators, however moneying for equipment start-ups continues to be a significant difficulty. Facilities voids, supply chain ineffectiveness, and irregular plans likewise produce challenges,” he keeps in mind.

” In spite of this, the need for automation, a young labor force, and untapped markets existing substantial possibilities and we intend to get over the market’s obstacles by leveraging neighborhood proficiency and building critical collaborations.”

SAYeTECH’s essential emphasis in 2025 is dealing with the previous year’s unmet need for equipment.

” Because of restricted functional capability, we were just able to fulfill 20% of customer need for devices in 2015. This contributed to the $3 million+ well worth of item we have actually been incapable to provide over the previous 6 years.”

The firm likewise prepares to release 250 clever sensing units and introduce the very first pilot of its sensor-powered cocoa-pod breaker.

” A crucial requirement for set manufacturing and maintaining supply rather than ‘in the nick of time’ is financing,” states Appiagyei. “Because of this, we intend to finish a moderate fundraise this year.”

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