10 South African Entrepreneurs Driving Agricultural Innovation
10 South African Entrepreneurs Driving Agricultural Innovation. Agricultural innovation in South Africa is rapidly evolving, driven by a blend of traditional practices and modern technology. Entrepreneurs are at the forefront, developing solutions to address challenges such as climate change, water scarcity, and food security. Below are ten South African entrepreneurs who are driving agricultural innovation.
Thato Moagi
Founder of Legae La Banareng Farms, a sustainable farming enterprise that integrates modern and traditional farming techniques.
Max Pichulik
Co-founder of GreenFingers Mobile. GreenFingers Mobile replaces paper and pen small farmer management systems enabling transparency in the value chain and creating digital identities and credit records for farmers.
Aron Kole
Founder of FarmSol, which offers financial and technical support to emerging farmers. This is a ‘South African Breweries Thrive Fund’ initiative and an agricultural services company focused on bringing sustainable solutions that link customers in the food and beverage sector with smallholder farmers. In creating this much needed linkage, the company focuses on incubating smallholder farmers into fully-fledged, future-fit, sustainable enterprises attaining higher improved quality yields, participating in commercial supply chains and enabling multinationals in the food and beverage sector to source reliable supply of high-quality raw materials from its network of smallholder farmers across South Africa.
Nthabiseng Mosia
Nthabiseng Mosia is a South African-Ghanaian entrepreneur and co-founder of the Sierra Leone–based solar energy company Easy Solar. Easy Solar provides solar energy solutions to rural farmers to improve productivity.
James Paterson
He is the co-founder and CEO of Aerobotics, a data analytics company that uses imagery and machine learning algorithms to measure yields and optimize crop performance for the global fruit and nut supply chain.
Karidas Tshintsholo
He is the founder and CEO of Khula, a business which creates technology solutions for agriculture in Africa. The company’s main focus is on creating an inclusive mobile marketplace which will drive the success and growth of farmers, disrupting the wholesale food market. This marketplace optimizes logistics by using geolocation and by offering efficient and cost-effective logistics services for emerging farmers.
Jacobus Els (Right)
He is the co-founder of Revolute Systems. The company provides a wide range of precision agriculture measurement tools and management software. Whether you are in farming or consulting, the company provides your operation with the latest remote sensing capabilities. Its tech is able to quantify variations in soil, canopy health and fruit load to help farmers optimize inputs and ultimately harvest better yields.
Zamokuhle Thwala
Zamokuhle Thwala is the CEO & co-founder of AgriKool. Africans spend over 40% of their disposable income on food, compared to 5-10% spent in developed countries. This problem is caused by the prevalent fragmentation and intermediary in the agri-value chain. To solve this problem, AgriKool is building an e-marketplace that connect producers and buyers to a fair and reliable market. The mission of AgriKool is to transform Africa’s agri-food systems and build resilient agri-food systems.
Jacques du Plessis
He is the co-founder of FarmTrace, a leading Agricultural ERP System, providing producers with true cloud software to complement their operational requirements. The FarmTrace software package is unique, as it integrates all production activities into a single management platform. It is a true cloud-based application that enables producers to monitor and control their operations from anywhere in the world, by using a web-browser, or mobile device running Android or Apple iOS.
Nonhlanhla Joye
Founder of Umgibe Farming Organics and Training Institute. Umgibe Farming Organics is a carbon-saving, ecological-organic, income generating vegetable program which provides a platform to market vegetables grown by grassroots farmers from the sub-economic townships of KwaZulu Natal.
