GCRF Agri-tech Catalyst Seeding Award - CEH 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 Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana. 

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 three research projects: 

1) Advancing improvement of Moringa species for agricultural use through development of genomic selection technology. The work supports the scaling-up of good quality indigenous tree species for agriculture and reforestation. This supports women and children by improved and more equitable access to better quality foods.

2) A co-produced application platform to link people and practice to promote resilience in cocoa agroforestry in West Africa. The project will strengthen resilience, particularly under climate change and tackling extreme poverty and its associated vulnerabilities, to support rural smallholder communities through support of sustainable cocoa production. This innovation will empower farmers to communicate concerns for their future productivity and enable them to benefit from greater information sharing and improved record keeping. 

3) An interactive, web-based lake zonation tool for supporting the sustainable development of cage fish farming in Lake Victoria, Kenya. Although the Kenyan part of Lake Victoria covers only 6% of the lake’s surface area, its fishermen land more than 35% of all fish harvested from the lake. The project will support Kenyans who on depend on capture fisheries in the lake for their food and livelihoods, by empowering them to manage demand for fish to feed a growing population from capture fisheries which have been declining due to overfishing, pollution and the proliferation of water hyacinth. 

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.