Youth innovators develop agri-tech solution for boosting yields
A team of four young innovators have invented an Agri-tech solution to help farmers monitor their crop health, yield and moisture using satellite images and drone technologies.
Their company, EO Analytics, focuses on the use of technologies such as Satellite Images and Drone (Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles) integrated with Machine learning to build solutions not only for the Agricsector but also for the Civil and Mining sectors. For the Absa Hackathon, they used the technology to build an application that will help farmers to monitor their crop health, crop yield, soil moisture of their farm remotely.
The four University of Botswana Research Assistants in the field of Geomatics, Lone Nigel Lottering, Kelebile Balo, Amantle Keitsile and Mokolobetsi Mugwana conceived the agri-tech solution whilst still studying, inspired by the current food production in Botswana and the advancement of technology.
Speaking to the Business Trends, Lone Lottering said through their studies and research work they realized how the satellite technology and Drone technology simplifies work and help increase productivity in various sectors. “Our research at
UB indicated that Smart farming and precise farming improves farmers’ crop output by nearly 80 percent. Looking at this data, we were motivated to build a solution that is inclusive of every Farmer (Commercial or Subsistence) to help them improve on their Crop production.”
He said their technology can also be applied in the civil sector, mostly for dam water level monitoring and water quality and Infrastructure Assessment and monitoring. “Topographic surveys and Mining Surveys are part of the services that our company offers through the use of Drone.” The company has recently emerged as one of the three best innovators in the Absa Bank Botswana Hackathon and Incubation programme. Lottering said through this experience they learnt a lot of things as they went through entrepreneurial skills training on the key skills they needed to advance their idea to a viable business. “We also got to meet different stakeholders in Botswana and these include; Botswana Digital Innovation Hub (BDIH), Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB), Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) , Company and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) to name a few. We got to learn how we can harness the opportunities offered by these organisations and also learnt how to run our business.”
He said the market of Drones and Satellite Image usage is still budding and their growth is mostly affected by local knowledges on the use of this technology which is still at its infancy. “Most of the time, we have to build a very solid business case to our clients before we can start offering such services to them, this includes, educating people about the services we offer and how they will benefit them. Most of the time is spent on explaining the technology rather than using the technology to speed up a process. However, with this technology, clients are often happy because of the turnaround time for a process that could have taken weeks to complete.”
The company is currently working on one project at the University of Botswana. He said they are expecting to have more farmers in the Pandamatenga area as clients.
Lottering said in the next five years, their goal is to expand into new geographic market at the same time, bringing in more advanced technologies to broaden their service offerings. “We also intend to expand our personnel and facilities to have more young people working towards bringing 4th Industrial revolution solutions that will drive our country forward. Lastly, we see our company partnering with Universities, private companies, parastatals, banking and Insurance organisations.”