GrainMate Grain Moisture Meter

Over 30% of grains produced in Africa, is lost to post-harvest losses with moisture-related causes accounting for15% of total losses.Smallholder farmers suffer the worst, producing 80% of food grown on the continent yet earning little for their toil.

By knowing the moisture content of their grains, farmers can know whether they’re dry enough for storage, thereby reducing mould growth and losses.However farmers are unable to access simple equipment to measure moisture in their grains because existing solutions are too expensive and inaccessible.

Our solution, GrainMate helps farmers quickly and effectively determine the moisture content in their grains before storage, helping them drastically cut down on losses and significantly increasing their net income.

Our Grain-for-GrainMate model lets farmers exchange bags of grain for GrainMate without cash.When scaled globally, GrainMate has the potential to lift farmers out of poverty and negate the effect of post-harvest losses on food security and economic stability.

The FAO reports that over 30% of grains produced in Africa, worth $4bn is lost to post-harvest losses with moisture-related causes accounting for 15% of total losses.High moisture content in grains leads to the growth of mould which destroy the grains.Too low moisture content leads to a reduction in the weight of the grains, resulting in economic losses for farmers.Furthermore, aflatoxins that grow in high moisture content grains have been linked to 40% of liver cancer cases in Africa. 

Of those impacted, the 150million smallholder farmers in Africa suffer the worst, producing 80% of food grown on the continent yet earning less than $300 annually from their toil, often being unable to adequately cater for their families.

By knowing the moisture content of grains, farmers can determine whether their grains are dry enough for storage, thereby reducing mould growth and moisture-related losses.However, farmers are unable to access equipment needed to measure moisture because existing solutions are too expensive, inaccessible and unsuitable for use so they resort to rudimentary, methods such as biting and the grains which are ineffective.

The farmers end up selling their grains for cheap on the market for fear of losses, losing potential income in the process.

Our solution, GrainMate is a simple-to-use grain moisture meter that helps farmers measure the moisture content in their grains before and during storage to help them cut down drastically on post-harvest losses.

It is designed to be used by people with limited education.To measure the moisture content, all farmers have to do is insert the attached probe into a bag of grain, select the grain type and then read the moisture content off an LCD screen.They can then compare the reading with an attached chart to know whether the grain is dry enough or has to be dried some more.

It works by measuring the temperature and relative humidity of the air surrounding the grain and by using sophisticated models developed for each supported grain type, accurately determines the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of the grain.

It currently supports 10 of the most popular grain types grown in Africa including corn, rice, sorghum, wheat, soybean and millet, with our models designed based on local varieties of these grains. 

GrainMate is a product of 4 years of research, development and field testing by a multidisciplinary team of engineers, scientists and researchers from Ghana and USA.

Our solution is primarily targeted at the 150million smallholder grain farmers in sub-saharan Africa.These farmers typically have a farm size of 2 hectares or below and harvest an average of 20 to 30 bags per hectare.They are generally organized in groups of called farmer-based organizations(FBOs). Each FBO can contain up to 50 farmers.

One of the impediments to the adoption of GrainMate by these farmers is the lack of knowledge about post-harvest management so we have partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture(Ghana) and the World Food Programme to engage farmers at the FBO level.

We listen to their challenges, teach them about post-harvest management and introduce GrainMate to them, helping them understand that by using GrainMate, they can cut down on losses by 15+% and increase their net income by over 40% while being able to store enough grains for their family’s consumption without worrying about spoilage.

Aside from smallholder farmers, GrainMate is also a necessity for all others involved in the grain value/supply chain.GrainMate helps poultry farmers and feed producers produce better quality feed.It also helps grain aggregators negotiate better prices and store grains for longer.Agric extension service officers use GrainMate to teach farmers better post-harvest management practices too.

Through GrainMate, we have created a viable solution for one of the most vexing problems that plague farmers in Africa and threaten global food security—post-harvest losses.

Additionally, to successfully feed 3billion extra people by 2050, we cannot afford any more losses.By training farmers in post-harvest management and helping them adopt GrainMate, we are driving the adoption of better supply chain practices which help reduce food losses while ensuring healthy food.

With the increased agricultural productivity resulting from reduction in losses, the need to clear more land for farming will reduce, helping to reduce reduce carbon emissions and save the environment.

The innovativeness of GrainMate lies in how we have taken an existing solution and made it simple to use, easy to locally manufacture, how we have tailored it towards the needs of a massive, underserved market and most importantly, the business model we are using to deliver this solution to the market.

We have two main groups of competitors.On one hand, established players likeJohn Deere and Agratronix, with a history of making top quality grain moisture meters. However, these meters are sophisticated and expensive—far beyond the reach of the average smallholder farmer.Their cup-type design is also not effective for use in Africa, where most farmers store their grains in bags.

On the other hand there are Chinese knockoffs that are cheap but are barely effective, cannot be calibrated or upgraded and not readily accessible.Also none of these players are especially targeting smallholder farmers.

GrainMate was designed to adopt the quality and accuracy of established brands while still making the product affordable and simple enough to use.It is over 4-times cheaper than competing brands while offering similar accuracy.Its probe-type design also means that it can be used to test whole bags of grains rather than a small sample at a time.

Working very closely with supply chain stakeholders, we have established a Grains-4-GrainMate business model that lets a group of farmers own a GrainMate without paying cash by simply coming together to contribute a few bags of grains in exchange for  GrainMate.

Our solution uses sensor technology to measure the temperature and relative humidity of the air spaces surrounding the grain while it is in a bag or container. We then put this data into grain equilibrium moisture content (EMC) models which we have developed over the years to calculate to a high degree of accuracy the equilibrium moisture content of the sample under test.

The models we have developed also take in as parameters constants that are specific to the grain type under test. These constants are derived through laboratory analysis of the grain varieties using specialized moisture chambers. We then use statistical models to model the data obtained from the analysis and obtain the constants for the grain types.

The device itself is made up of two parts; a handheld unit and a sensor probe. The sensor is housed in an aluminium probe connected to a handheld unit via a simple telephone cable and connector. The handheld unit contains an 8-bit microcontroller that processes the sensor data and calculates the moisture content. 

For newer models of GrainMate currently under development, an added Bluetooth module will allow the meter to communicate directly with a smartphone application and provide instant recommendations based on readings. It will also allow for users to upgrade their meters to support more grain varieties in the future.

GrainMate utilizes a widely used and accepted  scientific concept—equilibrium moisture content—to measure the moisture content of different materials. This technology is most commonly used in the wood moisture meter industry to design moisture meters to measure the moisture content of wood.

We have a a peer reviewed academic paper authored by agricultural engineering researchers from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) detailing the scientific principles behind the workings of our technology.

We have also received pattern approval certificates from the Ghana Standards Authority as well as verification certificates from the Rwandan Standards Boardthat confirm that our technology works.

A demo animation video developed by Scientific Animation Without Borders shows GrainMate at work.

We believe that GrainMate has a strong potential to reduce post-harvest losses in grains. The technology is backed by solid research that proves that post-harvest losses in grains can be drastically reduced by proper moisture testing and good storage.

By providing training in post-harvest management to farmers, we can get them to understand the impact of high moisture content on their grains and potential income.

By linking farmers who have quality grains with premium markets, we can get them to adopt a habit of testing for moisture content and by providing them with the tools they need to do so, we can unlock massive savings in grains that would otherwise be lose whole increasing the income of farmers.

So far, the activities that we have undertaken above has led to positive outputs where already farmers that are using GrainMate have reported increase in  productivity and a reduction in losses, a good short term goal. We believe that more success stories will create a ripple effect that will lead to a ripple effect where other farmers are adopting GrainMate as the benefits become clearer.

Furthermore, data from interviews we have had with members of 17 farmer based organizations in Ghana shows an overwhelming desire of farmers to adopt GrainMate once all barriers to accessibility are removed.

In the short term, we look forward to being able to help farmers increase their net incomes by up to 50% so that they are able to improve the standard of living of themselves and their families.

In the long term, we believe that mass adoption of GrainMate will lead to a drastic reduction in losses in Africa, leading to improved food security, better nutrition and better economic stability for African countries.

Our solution currently services about 1000 grain farmers, grain aggregators and merchants, poultry farmers, feed producers and warehouse operators mainly in Ghana but also at a smaller scale in Nigeria.

Over the last year, we have built the foundations needed to drive quick mass production of units and have built the distribution channels and partnerships needed to get the product quickly to more people. We are also planning to invest into marketing and market education in collaboration with private and public partners.

Based on this we hope to reach 5,000 users in the next year and 50,000 in the next 5 years.

Our goal next year is to reach 5000 farmers with GrainMate and help them achieve at least a 15% reduction in losses and a corresponding increase in extra income. 

We plan to do this by partnering with both government and private stakeholders who have similar goals and leveraging each others strengths to effectively deliver GrainMate to farmers.

In 5 years, in addition to GrainMate, we hope to reach 50,000 farmers and key stakeholders along the agric value chain with a wide range of affordable technology-powered agro-services that solve the most important and most fundamental problems they face, from pre-harvest to post-harvest.

Through these solutions we hope to help them increase yield, reduce losses and maximize productivity. We foresee our efforts having a positive ripple effect on millions of consumers downstream the value chain who will benefit primarily from being able to access healthy, nutritious food.

We will further foster collaborations with key stakeholders to drive common goals. Already we are currently working with the World Food Programme and the Ministry of Agriculture in Ghana. We hope to amplify these collaborations to scale the impact of our solutions.

In the process, we look forward to creating hundreds of jobs locally.

Our progress has been hampered by a number of factors including. Firstly, financial. We are still bootstrapping, which is a difficult thing to do as a hardware startup. Financial constraints have also made it difficult to find and hire the right talent to accelerate the research and development of our products, set up a mass production facility to produce at scale and do the market education needed to drive adoption.

We also face cultural barriers where farmers find it difficult to immediately accept the new, improved post-harvest management practices we introduce, as they are usually contrary to the norms that have been passed to them through the generations. 

Furthermore, in many African countries, commodity markets are unstructured and unregulated and there are usually no laws that force farmers to ensure that their they produce good quality grains at the right moisture content. In areas where those laws exist, they are often not enforced. 

This makes it difficult to drive adoption of GrainMate as farmers often initially do not immediately see any market incentive to use GrainMate since they will still manage to find buyers for their grains regardless of the moisture content.

To solve our financial constraint issues, we are taking a lean startup approach where we are trying to cut down costs while focusing on gaining market traction so that we can eventually raise institutional funding at favourable terms without a lot of struggle.

In the meantime, we have leveraged the abundance of global opportunities such as MIT solve to raise grant funding to keep our runway as long as possible and hire key people.

To address cultural barriers, we are building trust among the farmers by partnering with organizations that have an existing relationship with these farmers to deliver our solutions. We are also identifying "community champions" - educated farmers in the communities who are able to appreciate the problem solution and communicate it to the other farmers. 

To address the lack of regulation in the grain commodity market, we are firstly working  with government stakeholders and policy makers to develop regulations. Secondly we are working to create very strong financial incentives for farmers to adopt GrainMate, such as finding people who will buy good quality grains from these farmers at premium prices.

We currently have 10 people in all working on our solution. 5 full time staff 2 part time staff and 3 contractors all working from our base in Kumasi, Ghana.

Our team is made up of a passionate team of young professionals dedicated with a diverse background from engineering to product development to marketing. 

The team is led by Isaac Sesi, an entrepreneur, engineer and one of the youngest innovators from the 2019 class of MIT Technology Review's Innovator Under 35 for his work on GrainMate.

The team is advised by experienced industry experts including Dr Paul Armstrong, an engineer from the US Department of Agriculture and the lead scientist for the research the led to GrainMate. We are also advised by Prof George Opit, an expert in Post-harvest Management and a professor of entomology and plant pathology at the Oklahoma State University..

GrainMate currently has partnerships with the following entities.

• The UN World Food Programme: We are working with the UN World Food Progamme to pilot GrainMate among 37 smallholder farmer groups within the Programme's Network of 22,000 smallholder farmers in Ghana.
• FeedTheFuture Innovation Lab for the Reduction of Post-Harvest Losses. (PHLIL) - We are working with PHLIL to trains farmers in post-harvest loss management through the use of GrainMate and ZeroFly bags. PHLIL is also providing technical support to our hardware team.
• National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI)- Ghana - We  are working with the NBSSI, a government agency in Ghana to provide training in post-harvest management to farmers under their network.

Our primary mode of generating revenue is through the sale of GrainMate units. Each unit retails at $100. Our B2B customers, consisting of grain merchants and aggregators, feed producers and poultry farmers pay outright for each unit they buy.

For smallholder farmers we have established a Grains-4-GrainMate business model that lets a group of farmers own a GrainMate without paying cash by simply coming together to contribute an equivalent  value of grains in exchange for  GrainMate.

We aggregate the grains we receive from farmers and store them and resell them during the lean season to our buyer network at higher prices, recovering the value of the GrainMate with interest.

We also target relevant programmes and projects of donor organizations such as USAID programmes who buy GrainMates on behalf of benecifiary farmers.

We are also in the process of setting up a project we have name SaveTheGrains, where individuals across the world can sponsor GrainMate on behalf of beneficiary farmers.

In the future, we plan to introduce a number of complimentary services to GrainMate to help us generate recurring revenue from GrainMate users.

I believe that funding from Solve which we intend to invest into marketing will help us reach more farmers.

Mentoring and strategic advise we will receive will help us refine our business model and put out company towards the direction of success.

Being part of the Solve community will give us to future investors and make it easier to raise funding.

As a young startup we believe that we need help in refining our business model, our distribution, our technology and our product. Partnership in these areas will give us the support we need.

Also we believe the media exposure will open a lot of market access opportunities for us.

• One Acre Fund
• Good Nature Agro

These organizations work with a large pool of farmers who stand to benefit from our solution.