Young Agri-tech innovators in Malawi have been urged to exercise resilience and patience in the push for adoption of their innovations in the country’s agriculture sector.

Winner of the grand prize in the newly introduced Agriculture Youth Technology (AYuTe) Africa Challenge, Alinafe Kaliwo said often young innovators get easily discouraged with challenges they face to scale up adoption of their concepts and technologies.

“There is a lot support needed and a lot of gaps that we need to fill more especially in this innovation space. You know innovation in Malawi or elsewhere, for local solutions is at a young stage so we need catalyst grants that would enable the innovators work on the solutions without worrying about the costs for implementation, probably piloting their inventions. All that is needed is patience and resilience,” he advised.

Kaliwo scooped the grand prize of K13 million in the AYuTe Africa Challenge conducted in nine African countries where Heifer International is implementing its programs.

He said the awards are a launch pad for young agri-tech solutions innovators to maximize their potential in transforming agriculture and food systems in the region with their concepts and technologies.

“We manufacture actually soil monitoring tools, the chameleon card. Locally here in Malawi the tools and indicators gadgets involve sensors, something which was a goal when I was growing up to domesticate technologies for small holder farmers,” he said.

He added that the tools have been in use since 2017 and now present in 23 countries.

The other two in-market awards were scooped by Stanislaus Sakwiya for his Mlimi Pay Limited and Emmanuel Thungula with Solar dryer and walked away with K10 million and K7 million respectively while five other got K2 million each for their idea stage and prototype innovations.

Interim lead for Heifer International in Malawi, Francis Saka said the challenge was introduced in 2021 to create momentum for youth participation in agri-food space.

It was initiated as AYuTe Next generation to attract the youth in the agriculture space. You know despite growing interest among the youth in the agriculture space; access to land, capital and technologies remain major challenges driving away their interest hence the AYuTe Africa challenge for them to participate through agri-tech innovations,” Saka said.

Besides the awards, Heifer International board chairperson Dr Tamani Nkhono Mvula said the winners have opportunities for mentorship and adoption of their innovations into the organisation’s programs.

“In terms of access, agriculture technology is still very low in the country so as Heifer International, we have made a pledge that apart from supporting these youths to scale up these technologies, we are also going to ensure that they participate regional and global stages of the AYuTe competition,” he added.

Meanwhile, Director of livestock and animal services in the ministry of Agriculture Dr Julius Chulu says government has put policies and strategies to create a better platform for youth participation in the agriculture industry

He said one of the enablers of the first 10 years of Malawi 2063 implementation plan is agriculture commercialisation transformation through innovations with focus on the youth as the future of agriculture innovation.