The Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Challenge Results

I came to know of this challenge too late :-( but all the same am glad to follow up the ideas submitted and the corresponding results and utter my congratulations message to all participants.In my capacity,no single participant is a failure,whether they won or not.

The challenge was looking for innovative ideas on three major categories: Decoding data,Irrigation efficiency and Farming Now.This was in line with the centennial celebrations of Rockefeller Foundation and hence they were on the look out for innovative ideas  that would address change and bring about the expected impact in the targeted persons. Find HERE detailed information regarding the Challenge overview,Eligibility and Criteria used.
The 8 challenge winners were drawn from the 15 finalists from Africa,Asia,South America and North America from the list of 2,000 entrants who submitted her ideas.They will be applying for grants of  $100,000 to help kick off their ideas.These winning ideas include:


i) Farming Now Category
a) Farm quest by Mobido Coulibay (Mali)~A reality radio program series that comprises of between 6-8 people out to create the "Best New Farm".
b) Empowering youth with agricultural information through Radio and other ICTs by Joseph Macharia (Kenya)~The program will aim at disseminating knowledge on agriculture as a business and on value chain developments.
c) Youth Agro Entrepreneurs by Fatima Oyiza Ademoh (Nigeria) ~An initiative to draw more young people in to agriculture.It operates in schools where young people can come and be taught tid bits of farming.


ii) Irrigation efficiency Category
a) Layering Raised Bed And Furrowing Technology by John Duxbury(United States) ~which focusses on using raised beds and furrows in place of flood irrigation hence efficiently improve the use of fertilizers and water,reduce labour shortages and offer opportunities in the agribusiness sector.
b)  Resonating, Viscoelastic Drip Emitters For Low-Pressure, Low-Cost Drip Irrigation by Amos Winter(United States) ~which is an idea where a drip emitter will reduce by 90% especially for farmers that live off the electrical grid.


iii) Decoding Data Category
a)  Kolkata Medical Emergency System by Rita Bhattacharjee(India)~ which offers a centralised medical emergency system by Kolkata to provide for emergency healthcare facilities or products.
b) WATSAN Portal: a platform for improving water and sanitation in slums by Chelina Odbert  (Kenya) ~which is a phone based system offering to work with communities through identification of structures that link to the municipal with an aim of upgrading the projects concerned with water/sanitation.
c) Open Legislative Data by  Pedro Markun(Brazil) ~which is a data platform where Sao Paulo residents can obtain official information on any topics that interests them.


Further information on the winners can be obtained at  The Rockefeller Foundation Centennial Website and Rockefeller Foundation

Once again,Congratulations to the winners and all who participated.All the best in implementing your noble ideas.

M-Farm

M-Farm is a software solution and agribusiness company whose existence can be traced after the IPO48 Competition where it's overall win in the 37submitted ideas saw it  take away an estimated amount of 10,000 Euros as start up capital. Their main product is a transparent tool where farmers through an SMS to 3556, get to know the retailing market prices of products,the price of farm inputs and the price for their produce.


In a nut shell this is what they do:
i)Enable farmers to inquire current market prices of different crops from different regions and/or specific markets.
ii)Aggregate farmers needs/orders and connect them with farm input suppliers.
iii)Enable farmers to sell collectively and connect them with a ready market.


Reasons to What They do
Most farmers in rural areas gropple with issues of land productivity and scrupulous middlemen who make the search for markets for their produce a distasteful venture for them. Here is where  Mfarm  comes in to provide a virtual space where farmers can sell their produce and and buy their farm inputs on the same.


Recent Development
Word has it that M-farm is scaling to the smart phones level by  launching a new mobile application come 5th, June 2012. The mobile apps will be on Android and  Samsung and Bada mobile platform.


During the launch, Mfarm will  reveal its upgraded mobile and web features which is inclusive of a new SMS code for transparency in marketing  of agricultural commodity trading. More information on the same can be found in the Pivot East Website 


More information on the same can be obtained at their website (www.mfarm.co.ke) or on twitter  (@mfarm_ke)

iCow: A Dairy's Farmer Best Friend!

My recent research reveals a lot of mobile applications centered around improving the productivity of agriculture in general. And more so,many more are being developed as each day unveils. Unfortunately, they are still to go viral like their counterparts Facebook and Twitter. But on the same note, some people still don't understand what they entail. In the subsequent technology in agriculture posts, i will be taking a deeper perspective for all these applications.For a start, i begin with iCow.

 iCow is an sms and web based farmer platform or better still the first of its kind as a mobile phone calender for cows.It was developed by Green Dreams TECH Ltd with the sole purpose of targeting small scale dairy farmers to tackle issues in the cows life cycle and maximize their returns.These issues include among them, milk record keeping,management of a cow's estrus cycle,prevention of milk related diseases,calf diseases and treatment, proper nutrition among others.

In addition,it tracks each farmer's cow on an individual basis and helps keeping records of each cow. This information includes:

• A comprehensive Gestation Calendar customized to each cow based on the Date of Service (based on the AI ‘straw’ or any other known measure) and/or the Calving Date
• The Milking Calendar and customizable Milking Schedules
• The Milking Calculator
• A customizable Immunization Calendar
• Health Information Services
• Diet Information Services
• Nutrition Information Services
• Illness and Disease Information Services
• Costs of production customizable calendar and calculator
• Calf Records including gender, weight, Date of Birth, etc.

How does it work!

The practically and good thing with iCow is you DO NOT need a smartphone to operate it.Any simply phone that can send and receive texts works wonders.This helps bridge the digital divide among aged farmers as a mobile management tool.

To register for iCow, simply send the word iCow to 5024 using either your Orange,Airtel or Safaricom line.Each SMS costs Kshs 5/-

Other Instructions follow below:

1. To find a vet: Vet#county#location#

e.g vet#nakuru#njoro#

2. To find AI: AI#county#location#

e.g AI#nakuru#njoro#

3. To Register yourself: reg#farmername#county#

e.g reg#kamau#kiambu#

4. To register a cow: by insemination date: serve#cowname#inseminationdate#

e.g serve#maria#2010-04-23#

or by birth date: Birth#cowname#date of birth#

e.g birth#maria#2007-08-19#

More news on iCow is that it has been a recipient of many awards, among them the winner in apps for africa 2010.Other awards it has won can be found in their BLOG

For more information on the same check their WEBSITE