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Overview

The Innovate Africa Challenge (3rd Edition), jointly organised by Smart Africa and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is a continental initiative that aims to accelerate the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for climate-smart agriculture in Africa.

The 2026 edition is themed “From Ideation to Deployment”, focusing on moving proven AI innovations beyond the pilot stage into practical, scalable solutions that deliver measurable benefits to farmers and agricultural systems.

Objectives

The challenge seeks to identify and support one proven AI-driven solution for Climate-Smart Agriculture and deploy it within a Smart Africa Member State. The selected solution will be implemented in partnership with national ministries responsible for Agriculture, ICT and Innovation, the Smart Africa Secretariat, and FAO country offices and technical experts.

The initiative aims to:

• Accelerate the deployment of AI solutions in African agriculture.
• Strengthen collaboration between governments, innovators, research institutions, the private sector, and farmer organisations.
• Generate evidence and practical lessons to support policy development and large-scale adoption of AI technologies.

Expected Outcomes

The challenge is expected to deliver a scalable and context-validated AI solution capable of improving farmers’ decision-making, productivity, and climate resilience.

It also seeks to strengthen multi-stakeholder collaboration across the agricultural innovation ecosystem while generating evidence, best practices, and a replicable model for scaling AI-enabled climate-smart agriculture across Africa.

Scope of the Challenge

Proposals should address one or more of the following focus areas:

• Precision agriculture and input optimisation.
• Crop yield prediction and forecasting.
• Pest and disease surveillance, detection, and early warning.
• Climate risk modelling and adaptive decision support.
• Water and natural resource optimisation.

Solutions should demonstrate the ability to operate effectively in African agricultural contexts, including smallholder farming systems, low-connectivity environments, incomplete datasets, diverse agro-ecological conditions, multilingual settings, and integration with national agricultural extension and ministry systems.

Eligibility

The challenge is open to startups, innovators, and solution developers actively developing or deploying AI-driven solutions for climate-smart agriculture.

Applicants must demonstrate:

• Technological maturity.
• Potential for measurable impact.
• A clear pathway towards scaling and financial sustainability.
• Commitment to strengthening Africa’s agricultural innovation ecosystem.

The call is only open to applicants from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda.