GCRF Agri-tech Catalyst Seeding Award - NIAB The primary outcome of this award is the adoption of relevant agricultural and food system innovations by farmers and other stakeholders in target countries in Africa. Benefiting residents in rural communities in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania.

Secondary outcomes include increased and improved understanding amongst UK businesses of the needs and opportunities in African countries; and increased engagement with African countries by UK businesses, including successful collaborations and lasting partnerships post-project.

The Seeding Award funded ten activities to support rural farmers by contributing to improved yields, tackling plant disease, improving food safety, and resilience to climate-change: Seeding Funding will also address the current inequality in technology readiness, particularly in African agriculture. We will support the nascent agricultural technology community to develop prototypes of new technologies that could be applied to improved agriculture. The activities were:
1) Workshop and Hackathon held at Bahir Dar university
2) Capture development and deployment to detect sequences enhancing geminivirus symptons cassava and its wild relative
3) Genetic diversity of a core set of Ethiopian Teff varieties as a public resource to drive agronomic gains
4) Investigating endophytes in Zimbabwean cucurbit crops
5) Testing and development of low-cost IoT sensors for precision irrigation by smallholder farmers
6) An attract and kill device for the control of banana weevil Cosmopolites sordidus, in banana: a vital staple crop in Uganda.
7) Sustainable smallholder cocoa production in Ghana: understanding and controlling beetle transmission of Phytophthora pod rot
8) Understanding the impact of combined stresses on the nutritional quality and productivity of African Eggplant
9) Improving orphan crops phenotyping method for yield improvement in Ethiopia
10) Enhanced practical diagnostics for common bean root-rot pathogens in East Africa
SDGs: 2, 8, 9 The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.