The 2022 AYuTe Africa Challenge winners include ThriveAgric from Nigeria, Kenya’s DigiCow and Botwana-based Brastorne Enterprises.

ThriveAgric is a fast-growing startup boosting farmer incomes and production with its breakthrough “agriculture operating system.” DigiCow is an agritech firm using digital tools to modernize production on small-scale dairy farms, while the digital technology for feature phones developed by Brastorne Enterprises is narrowing Africa’s rural digital divide.

“At a time when Africa is facing unprecedented food-related challenges, it is incredibly inspiring to see these young African champions firmly focused on an agriculture-led future that provides farmers with the innovations they need to succeed,” said Adesuwa Ifedi, senior vice president of Africa Programs, Heifer International. “We launched this competition in 2021, challenging African youths to bring us innovations poised to provide the positive disruption our farmers urgently need. ThriveAgric, DigiCow and Brastorne are more than ready to meet the moment,” she noted.

As winners of the 2022 AYuTe Africa Challenge, the three companies will receive a sizeable monetary investment: a total of $1.5 million in grants, along with ongoing support from a team of expert advisers—accomplished business veterans—to help them translate their funding into an aggressive expansion strategy.

This is part of Heifer International’s commitment to support young entrepreneurs developing affordable tech innovations as they work to scale their businesses. Doing so makes new services and technologies available to African farmers to overcome long-standing challenges while attracting a new generation to unlock the huge potential of agriculture on the continent.

All three of the 2022 AYuTe Africa Challenge winners are helping African farmers by providing a novel solution to everyday obstacles:

ThriveAgric addresses a key challenge for small-scale farmers in Africa—a lack of access to finance, technical advice, business skills and market opportunities. It does so by using a proprietary Agriculture Operating System to help a team of 2,000 field agents support some 500,000 farmers across 22 Nigerian states with insights to improve their production and profits.

“We’ve developed the technologies, strategies and partnerships we believe can build the largest network of productive, profitable farmers Africa has ever seen,” said Uka Eje, Thrive Agric’s co-founder and CEO.

“ThriveAgric’s 500,000 farmers are already producing and earning much more than the average Nigerian farmer. Investors are responding to our potential and this prestigious award from Heifer International will accelerate our plans to expand across the continent.”

DigiCow is helping small-scale African dairy operations increase productivity with technology that provides free access to livestock management experts and links farmers to skilled and qualified veterinarians, artificial insemination providers and feed supply services—all from their mobile phones.

“I grew up watching my mom struggle to get our cows to produce enough milk, and I’ve spent 15 years working with small-scale dairy farmers, so I know the challenges farmers face,” said Peninah Wanja, Co-founder of Nairobi-based DigiCow. “That’s why it’s been so exciting to see 60,000 farmers—many of them women—now using our DigiCow apps to become more profitable and productive. With this new support from Heifer International, I’m confident we can expand our reach to help small-scale dairy farmers across the continent.”

Brastorne’s apps, such as mAgri, give farmers access to farming information, markets and short-term finance using the capabilities of any feature phone, such as SMS and interactive voice technology. The Brastorne mobile service Mpotsa (“Ask me”) provides rural unconnected mobile users with localized information, and Vuka harnesses USSD technology to allow users on any phone to create profiles, add friends, create chat groups, and more.

These technologies have helped farmers realize a 250% increase in yields and achieve 85% savings in communication and information access. The company also boasts 100% youth employment.

“About 80% of Africans cannot afford smartphones or expensive data — but they do have feature phones, and Brastorne is ensuring those phones connect farmers, youth and women to the resources they need,” said Martin Stimela, co-founder and CEO of Brastorne. “We look forward to working with Heifer International to connect the rural poor with equitable access to markets, information and community.”

The Challenge

More and more aspects of modern life have moved online. Access to information, economic opportunities, and how we interact with our social circles are all reliant on access to the internet. Access to this near-limitless online world leads to empowerment for those with ready access. However, digital inclusion is not universal and a growing digital divide is excluding entire segments of our society from the potentially limitless benefits.

This is certainly the case in Africa, where 650 million of the continent’s one billion people own mobile phones, but the majority lack meaningful digital access.

There are a startling 760 million unconnected people in Africa. Economic realities are driving this digital divide. Africans use feature phones in large numbers, leaving only a few people who have both smartphones and the data plans required to be online.

When they have a smartphone, digital access comes at a crippling cost. One gigabyte of mobile data costs an average of $6.44 in Africa, which is equivalent to a week’s wages for the majority of the continent’s rural poor.

There are many efforts globally to promote digital inclusion, but Africa is still left behind. Brastorne acknowledges these realities and has implemented disruptive solutions to dissolve the barriers to digital inclusion in Africa.

The Solution

Brastorne is dedicated to connecting the 760 million Africans who currently lack meaningful access to the digital world.

Using existing infrastructure, standard telco networks, Brastorne’s technology turns the continent’s ubiquitous feature phones into internet portals for less than $0.05 per day. For these feature phone users, Brastorne’s solutions provide an experience similar to that of a smartphone mobile app. This is accomplished through a suite of technology solutions including USSD, IVR, or Voice to promote digital inclusion through Brastorne’s applications Mpotsa, mAgri and Vuka.

Mpotsa, which translates to “ask me how?” in English, is a two-way telephone-based question/answer platform that aims to provide users with information on almost anything. It provides information to users by acting as a Google-like service that uses the user-friendly technology of Voice/IVR. Farmers use mAgri to access advisory services, wikipedia, weather/pest alerts, crop prices, and financial services, as well as trade, chat, and email in their native language.

Vuka facilitates and accelerates convenient communication through USSD, allowing users to chat, send in-person messages, or broadcast messages on both low-end phones and smartphones.

These solutions empower numerous communities that rely on feature phones by giving them access to essential information such as employment opportunities, health advice, and legal services.

The Impact

Brastorne has brought the power of the internet to millions of people, improving their lives. Through Brastorne’s flagship product Smallholder Farmers experience increased access to communications  and  Women Smallholder Farmers see increased Crop Yield and increased revenue. In 2021, 36 000 farmers gained access to information, markets, & communication in Botswana through mAgri.

Furthermore Brastorne users realized 85% Monthly Savings in costs of information and communication access compared to alternatives (data bundles, physical travel costs etc), which can cost $15+/month.

Brastorne users in total have realized $3.4 million total annual savings across all 60,000 subscribers in 2021.

These savings can now be put to use to improve their farm, feed their families, or buy much-needed personal items.

Brastorne’s information access service Mpotsa has brought the power of the internet to new users, giving them increased access to information, medical treatment, COVID vaccinations, and access to jobs.

The service is a literal lifeline with an estimated 60% of Mpotsa subscribers who cannot otherwise afford digital information. In 2021, Mpotsa connected 25,231 total youth, over 15,000 of whom would otherwise have remained unconnected. This resulted in $60,554 total information access cost savings.

The Future

With its mission of connecting 760 million Africans who lack meaningful access to today’s digital world, Brastorne plans to expand its solutions to 19 different African countries.

Brastorne is currently operational in Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and most recently  Cameroon, having launched in October through partnerships with mobile network providers such as Orange.

It plans to address the realities of Africa’s lack of connectivity by enabling digital inclusion and its dividends through mAgri and Vuka.