Ghanaian Agritech Startup, GreenMatics, Is Building Affordable And Portable Agricultural Robots For African Farmers
Dec. 30, 2022, 12:36 p.m.
Farm labour in Africa is expensive and stressful. Studies revealed that the average grain farmer spends about $80 per acre, which is 40% of their total production cost on farm labour alone. This includes tasks such as seed planting, fertilizer application, weedicide spraying and even other factors such as fuelling farm machinery. For small and medium holder farmers who live well below the poverty line, this labour cost is passed down to the consumer, causing rising food prices on the market.
Furthermore, the labour-intensive nature of farming in Africa has negatively affected the health and productivity of many small and medium holder farmers.
A Ghanaian agritech’s vision is to transform agriculture and crop productivity through artificial intelligence, robotics and automation as they believe they possess what it takes to empower small and medium holder farmers.
Founded by Frank Khalid Limann, GreenMatics is a Ghanaian agritech company that develops low-cost, solar-powered agricultural robots (GreenBot) to automate labour-intensive farming tasks such as seed planting, fertilizer application, weedicide detection and spraying and performing soil nutrient analysis. eg. pH level, moisture etc.
Established in March 2022, GreenMatics’ GreenBot leverages robotics, automation, artificial intelligence and mobile app development. Although GreenBot is currently an MVP, it is able to automate labour-intensive farming tasks such as seed planting, fertilizer application, weedicide detection and spraying and also perform soil nutrient analysis.
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Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa spend an average, of $80 per acre on farm labour tasks aforementioned. GreenBot rental fees will be pegged at $35 per acre in planting, applying fertiliser and weedicide spraying tasks. “Through this, we intend to generate around $2.5 million from over 20,000 farmers at the end of each planting season,” Limann told DT Africa.
“Our plan is to either sell the GreenBot or rent it out to farmers. Our goal is to partner and collaborate with farmer-based organisations(F.B.O) and farming groups. Since these organizations work with farmers we have the opportunity to market our products to thousands of farmers across the country.”
“Majority of these smallholder farmers are either illiterate or semi-literate and hence may not be able to effectively use the product. This is where the farmer-based organisations and agents are responsible for operating the robots on the farms through a mobile application.”
“We expect to launch our first commercial model by the end of April 2023 and plan towards expansion to other countries. So, we are seeking funding through grants and investment to finance our R&D to meet our target of a final product launch by the end of April 2023.”
“We are also working industriously to provide farm operational services such as planting, fertilizer application and weedicide spraying services to over 20,000 farmers in major African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa," Limann elaborated.
tag: Africa, Robots, Entrepreneurship, Startup, Farming, Artificial Intelligence, ghana, Apps, Agriculture, Innovation,
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Verny loves to write poetry, fiction and quotes. Her love for writing landed her in journalism. She loves gadgets and travelling to explore new places.