Innovation Grant Pitching Contest: Internship with PEG Africa

Who are we looking for?

The first InGrant Pitching Contest seeks young Ghanaian entrepreneurs, innovators, and recent graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees (those who graduated no more than 12 months ago, i.e., September 2019) to undertake a one-year innovation internship with PEG Africa to carry out the following:

• Develop ways to link farmers to input and output markets to achieve profitable solar-based irrigated farming (challenge 1). Small-scale irrigators in Ghana face several challenges, including difficulty in accessing input and output markets due to limited distribution channels, inadequate input supply, information asymmetry in relation to determining price and securing markets for produce. Hand pumps and diesel generators are often not cost-effective and have little after-sales service. Solar pumps offer the advantage of better profitability in terms of yield increases, and fuel and labor cost savings for farmers. How can irrigators, usually in remote locations, be better connected to input and output markets to enable them to be more productive and profitable?
• Develop ways to address gender-based constraints to information and financial resources related to solar-based irrigation (challenge 2). The roles, perceptions, constraints and preferences of men and women farmers (including youth) in irrigated agriculture vary widely across peri-urban and rural locations. However, constraints include women’s limited access to information on irrigation technologies due to lower literacy and higher household obligations compared to men, as well as unequal access to financial resources, which subsequently affects women’s ability to invest in solar irrigation technologies. How can these constraints be addressed to ensure men and women farmers have equal access to information and financial services related to solar-based irrigation technologies?