Features

How Desert Green Aims To Tackle Food Insecurity In The Informal Agri-value Chain

How Desert Green Aims To Tackle Food Insecurity In The Informal Agri-value Chain. Desert Green is a company that was co-founded in 2015, formally registered in 2016, by 3 young entrepreneurs from different walks of life with 3 things in common: a rural upbringing, a passion for Agri-tech & a near-impossible vision for a self-sustaining connected Africa.

The company has collaborated in the SAB Ltd. Nelson Mandela Day’s corporate Social Responsibility program to equip rural dwellers in Bushbuckridge Mpumalanga to start micro-farms using unutilized backyard plots in 2017. It was first place winner of the 2018 South African Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards (GSEA-SA) competition. Desert Green represented South Africa at the GSEA finals in Canada. Desert Green Africa also finished in the top 6 award-winning finalists out of 56 Global candidates. The company was also honoured with the Sergey Vhykodtsev award for being a resilient business that used its obstacles to grow.

Desert Green is an Agritech start-up founded on the core-mission of tackling food insecurity challenges in the informal agri-value chain in Africa. The company builds mobile tech solutions to improve productivity; profits & livelihoods for Africa small-scale farmers & Informal traders while bringing youth back to farming. The company was co-founded by Tumelo Chiloane who also serves as its CEO, he is a South African born Social Afropreneur with a passion for technology and a vision for an Africa United. He is a trained & practiced professional Industrial Engineer that graduated with a B.Tech Degree at the Tshwane University of Technology. His focus roles at Desert Green includes but not limited to: Business strategy development, new markets, partnership development, business modeling, process design, and development & continuous improvement.

It was also co-founded by Akani Mbetse who serves as its COO, he is a South African born FERTASA accredited Soil Scientist, with a passion for food & sciences. Mbetse graduated from the University of Limpopo with B.sc Soil Science & Agronomy. His role in Desert Green includes Soil chemistry, extension and advisory, agronomy, farm operations, and management.

Desert Green was also co-founded by Randy Kumasamba, who is also the CPO of the company, he is a DRC born Agronomist & soil scientist, with a passion for crop biophysics. He graduated B.sc in Applied plant production & soil sciences from the University of Pretoria. His primary role in Desert Green includes sustainable agriculture production, on-farm irrigation scheduling, and management, crop production, crop fertilization planning and management, crop-biophysics’ analysis, soil physics.

By Thomas Chiothamisi
Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button