ANTIC has rewarded some three Start-ups with ICT gadgets for their brilliant contributions in the transformation of agriculture through the use of ICTs. The prizes were awarded to the Start-Ups, 03 July 2019, by the Director General of ANTIC, Prof Ebot Ebot Enaw, during the opening ceremony of the third edition of the Forum on the Contribution of Start-Ups in the Development of the Economy, organised by ANTIC in Yabassi, Littoral Region.
The Start-Up – PROMAGRIC of Pyrrus Koudjou, backed home the first award comprising a laptop and a scanner for running an e-commerce platform that has registered over 3000 farmers and agri-experts. It also stands out for offering adaptable solutions on the field by identifying crop diseases and providing remedies through a simple upload of a picture of the infected plant on the platform.
The two other awards went to AGRIBIZ of Jasmin Choake and AFOUP of Enganemoul Josué. AGRIBIZ was rewarded with a laptop for its drone-driven solution, which facilitates agricultural production by providing necessary and essential geographic, cartographic, planting and irrigational information to farmers.
The criteria used for the selection of best innovative solutions was based on their promotion of ICT uptake, its evolution, socio-economic impact on agricultural activities, use of the “.cm” domain name and the number of partnerships established with agricultural producers.
The Yabassi forum provided start-ups with the unique opportunity to present their innovative solutions to farmers and give them insight on how these solutions could help transform their activities, improve their yields and enhance their productivity and competitiveness, ANTIC’s Director General, Prof Ebot EBot Enaw, noted as he addressed the forum participants. Fifteen innovative solutions were presented to the farmers tagged on themes like: drones for precision agriculture, artificial intelligence in agricultural transformation, exploiting agribusiness potential through ICTs and ICTs: pillar of sustainable aquaculture.
Agriculture is the bedrock of Cameroon’s economy and for it to continue thriving, farmers must integrate ICTs in their farming practices in a bid to boost production as well as valorise and encourage young developers of innovative digital platforms to create and build businesses in the agricultural sector, Prof Ebot Ebot Enaw, said.
By adopting ICTs in their farming practices, farmers would optimise the effectiveness and efficiency of their production thanks to access to information on soil humidity, detection and treatment of farm areas infested by parasites, labour and market opportunities.
