Malawi - Startup under 3 years old

Décrivez votre projet en quelques mots

Delta Farming Systems is a startup business in Malawi that is developing Precision Irrigation Equipment enhanced using Machine Learning and farm management software wirelessly through the web.

01.01 Décrivez votre startup en détail

Delta Farming Systems specializes in developing IoT systems that will be integrated into precision irrigation methods such as drip and sprinkler setups to enhance the efficiency of these systems by using Machine Learning to adapt to farm specific requirements. To break the technological barrier between Delta Farming Systems and the end users which are smallholder farmers with 2-5 hectares of land or more, or large scale commercial farms, an AI powered (Large Language Model) is being used to create a user-friendly abstraction layer between farmers and the technical hardware. This is will be provided in the form of a localized farm management application on web or mobile.

01.02 Quel est le problème principal que vous essayez de résoudre ?

Delta Farming Systems aims to address the declining productivity of the Malawian food production system which is mostly characterized by smallholder farmers producing crops such as cereals and legumes once per growing season and continuously season in and out on the same pieces of land. This has created several issues including loss of productivity per genetic potential of high quality seed, loss of soil fertility due to production stress from the growing demand and limited growing time-frame due to inefficiency of current irrigation hardware at small scale. To compound all this, rapid climate change as well as the time lag between latest research from agricultural institutions means farmers cannot address challenges that are unique efficiently.

01.03 Dites-nous quels sont les principaux avantages et/ou bénéfices de l'utilisation du produit/service fourni par votre startup (au moins 3).

Our Precision Irrigation Equipment (PIE) has the following advantages: 1; Farmers have access to finely tunned and controlled irrigation setups that can automatically adjust to weather and field conditions, crop water requirements at different growing phases and water availability rationing. 2; Farmers can monitor and have access to their farms in real-time with remote monitoring as well as having access to records of past production and use analytics to thus compare different production variables that can aid in decision making. This includes remote collaboration among all involved parties. 3; Farmers have access to user-friendly control interfaces in the farm management software that, with the help of a large language model, can understand natural language prompts in the form of a farm-assistant-chatbot.

01.04 Veuillez décrire précisément à qui s'adresse le produit/service de votre startup. Quels sont les bénéficiaires visés ?

Our PIE equipment and services are mainly targeted to around 5600 medium to large-scale smallholder farmers specializing in food production with 2-5 ha of land or more. Commercial farms are also part of the premium customer segment due to the scale of the farms.

01.05 Quand votre entreprise a-t-elle été créée ?

04/12/2023

01.06 Vendez-vous déjà votre produit/service ?

Non

01.07 Combien y a-t-il de propriétaires de votre entreprise en plus de vous ?

3

01.08 Parmi les autres propriétaires, combien sont des femmes ?

1

01.09 Veuillez décrire le profil des autres propriétaires de votre startup (compétences, expérience, etc.).

1; Neister Mbuzi, Female, Networking Engineer, Extensive skills on network design and IoT system integration. 2; Suman Adams, Male, Agroforestry (BSc), Extensive knowledge and expertise in sustainable agriculture and agroforestry applications, skilled in extension research as well as knowledgeable in IoT systems. 3; Aime Francis, Male, Mechanical Engineer, extensive skills in computer aided design and digital manufacturing. 4; Landirani Mkonjo, Agriculture General (BSc), extensive skills in IoT systems development and electronic system design and prototyping, extensive knowledge in agricultural production and agricultural engineering.

01.10 Si vous avez un site web, une page sur les médias sociaux (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin...) ou une application, veuillez fournir le(s) lien(s) ici :

01.11 Quel est le secteur d'activité qui décrit le mieux votre entreprise ?

Technologies de l'information (services numériques, équipements et logiciels)

02.01.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Pas de pauvreté'

6

02.01.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

Our startup's mission is to enable smallholder farmers to significantly increase their crop production productivity by allowing them to grow more than once per season as efficiently as possible leading to more sales volume and subsequent income flow as consistently as possible.

02.02.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Faim Zéro'

7 - tout à fait d'accord

02.02.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

With ramped up productivity, our startup will significantly contribute to narrowing the food security gap in the country and beyond by allowing more farmers to produce more than they were previously able to on the same pieces of land. The farm management services will also allow farmers to have access to distilled research information that can address their unique challenges to production.

02.03.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Bonne Santé et Bien Être'

5

02.03.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

Although Good health hand well-being is a multifactorial issue, our startup contributes to less incidence of malnutrition due to the increased productivity which should allow for easier access to food especially among low income communities.

02.04.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Éducation de Qualité'

5

02.04.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

Although our services do are not explicitly aimed at education, the component of making the latest as well as most open research available in a highly customized form for easy uptake by ordinary farmers can be considered a significant component of agricultural education to our end users.

02.05.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Égalité entre les Sexes'

5

02.05.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

Our startup believes in harnessing the potential of both women and men equally. As such, our team is comprised of highly talented females that help us in inspiring other women to tap into their potential and enter an industry that is currently characterized by male dominance in achievements.

02.06.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Eau Propre et Assainissement'

5

02.06.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

One of the features of our PIE equipment is to monitor water quality for use in irrigation. However, we also realise that this kind of data can be utilized to paint a picture of water quality for general human use as well with just minor additions. As such, one of the services that we aim to provide is to map water qaulity in locations where our systems are installed and provide a basic picture of real-time water tables of particular locations as well as safe drinking sites and compromised sites that can then be targets for further external development by other agencies.

02.07.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Énergie Propre et Abordable'

3

02.07.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

02.08.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Travail Décent et Croissance Économique'

5

02.08.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

Our startup aims to boost agricultural productivity beyond what is currently capable on the existing resources. Therefore, this slight increase will allow the creation of more niche markets such as fully organic product markets that can benefit greatly from the high precision and level of production control our systems provide as well as generally expanding existing markets. this in combination with other sectors such as food processing will increase economic growth steadily.

02.09.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Industrie, Innovation et Infrastructure'

7 - tout à fait d'accord

02.09.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

Although irrigation is not a new concept/practice in the country, our aim is to radicalize the agricultural industry by introducing Artificial Intelligence in this sector as well to boost performance just as it has proven to accelerate growth in other sectors/industries all over the world. With this innovative approach to how we irrigate, we hope to reap the "exponential" benefits that our technologies promise to bring.

02.10.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Réduction des Inégalités'

4

02.10.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

02.11.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Villes et Communautés Durables'

6

02.11.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

We're excited to see "Sustainability" get adopted as part of our daily lives by demonstrating that sustainability equals efficiency and efficiency translates to more productivity regardless of the context. Therefore, by practically demonstrating to skeptical farmers that it is possible to have more output without wastefully expending inputs, we hope to normalize "sustainability" as part of our culture and thinking, eventually leading to application in other contexts as well.

02.12.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Consommation et Production Responsables'

7 - tout à fait d'accord

02.12.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

This goal aligns perfectly with our development philosophy at Delta Farming Systems. Our solutions are always targeted at efficiency and delivering the best of what technology has to offer without leaving a large footprint in terms of resource utilization as well as continuity of our solutions.

02.13.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Lutte contre les Changements Climatiques'

7 - tout à fait d'accord

02.13.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

One of the main reasons for the development of our enhanced Precision Irrigation Equipment was because of the rapidly changing climate. Our natural or conventional means of production could not keep up with the rate of climate change leading to discouraging production results even with the best certified seed and commercial fertilizer. Our comeback to these climate specific issues is using the tremendous power of Machine learning coupled with real-time data from on-farm and other climate sources to better predict climate shifts and prepare farmers before production or by adapting during production to save the crops.

02.14.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Vie Sous-Marine'

5

02.14.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

Efficient use of water for irrigation means less stress on our water sources, enabling life under water to co-exist with our farming needs and demands. This is what our Precision Irrigation Equipment and services are meant to boost.

02.15.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Vie Terrestre'

4

02.15.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

02.16.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Paix, Justice et Institutions Efficaces'

2

02.16.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

02.17.01 Ma startup contribue à l'objectif 'Parteneriats pour la Réalisation des Objectifs'

5

02.17.02 Justification de la contribution de ma startup

Our services model is significantly reliant on various collaborations for example with weather and climate change institution as well as agricultural research institution such as the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources to implement our solution.

06.01 Un grand nombre de clients utilisent déjà un produit/service très similaire au nôtre.

3

06.02 Notre produit/service représente un type de produit/service entièrement nouveau

1 - Pas du tout d'accord

06.03 Notre produit/service pourrait être décrit comme une nouvelle technologie

3

06.04 Notre produit/service est une amélioration d'un produit ou d'un service existant

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

06.05 Notre produit/service pourrait être décrit comme une extension d'une gamme de produits ou de services

5

06.06 Notre produit/service répond à une demande ou à un besoin qui n'a pas été satisfait par d'autres produits/services.

4

06.07 Notre produit/service est une nouvelle version d'un ancien produit/service

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

06.08 Justification

While precision irrigation is not a new concept , Our innovative approach to use the latest technology such as Machine Learning and generative AI in combination with our automated IoT systems to enhance the level of precision, control and water use efficiency in our precision irrigation equipment is certainly the first of its kind. We believe in harnessing the great potential that AI tools bring to the table for agriculture.

06.09 Analyse compétitive

Our main competitors are really international companies and teams such as Netafirm which have advanced large scale PIE systems but are Israeli based in the case of Netafirm. Locally however, we are one of the very few offering advanced automated Precision Irrigation Equipment, our main local competition being suppliers of ordinary PIEs that lack most of the IoT and Software advantages.

11.05 Menez-vous des actions au sein de votre communauté pour promouvoir le rôle des femmes entrepreneurs ?