TECH-INNOV : TELE-IRRIGATION

Niger is an arid country where drought is recurrent, rainfall is random, which causes chronic food insecurity with disastrous consequences for the population (poverty, unemployment, migration, conflict). Faced with these constraints, the population indulges in the practice of irrigation to survive. Unfortunately, this activity is still manual and rudimentary. It requires the physical presence of the farmer, occupies 2/3 of his daily time, degrades his health and physical energy, causes loss and wastage of water, pollution of the environment (use of fuel oil).

To ensure decent work for this population, Tech-Innov has made available to them an innovation for remote control of agricultural value chain activities, notably irrigation, fertilization, watering and monitoring the vegetative cycle. Indeed, Tele-Irrigation allows them to save time, energy; preserve health; increase irrigable area, production and income; manage water; empowerment of women, education of young people and fight against the spread from Covid 19 by remotelywork.

Niger is one of the least developed countries in the world with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $ 9.72 billion in 2019, ranking last in the world. According to the World Bank, agriculture employs 90% of the population (37.7% of GDP) and irrigated crops account for 0.2% of total agricultural land.

The causes of this grim situation ecoomic for Niger are poverty, the growing number of people linked to food insecurity, security crises and economic migration. According to the International Organization for Migration OIM (DTM March 2020), there were 45,981 displaced persons (migrants and refugees) in Niger in March alone. According to the High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR, the same source, Niger has around twenty camps and assembly sites totaling 221,671 refugees and 196,717 displaced persons. The trend is increasing as the country regularly faces a recurrent drought, the persistence of armed conflicts and the health crisis linked to the pandemic of Corona virus Covid19.

To make a contribution to this triple challenge (development, migration and arduousness of agriculture) Tech-Innov proposes to settle and settle these displaced people by creating automated agricultural enterprises (inclusive and sustainable) thanks to its innovations: Tele-Irrigation and Ecological Digital Farm.

Based on a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), ‘Tele-irrigation’ system can be connected to an irrigation system, a livestock-watering system, a drinking-water kiosk, and a weather station called ‘Meteo-Mobile’ in order to remotely activate the devices. All these products are targeted at farmers and are either distributed together as a package or separately. The first three applications are connected to a water pump fed by groundwater pumped using solar energy and activated by the ‘Tele-irrigation’ system. To activate these systems, farmers call Tech-Innov’s server from their mobile phones. As per the system, an automatic application has been set up to answer the phone, recognise the customer’s login, and then connect itself to the system to remotely control it. Farmers can either activate or stop their systems without being on their cultivation or farm. The ‘Tele-irrigation’ system is the first GSM-based system enabling remote irrigation in Niger making this Tech-Innov’s competitive advantage. It was invented in line with the growing Nigerien mobile market, which has grown at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.4% between 2008 and 2013 to reach a mobile penetration rate of 54% in 2019(IUT). Tele-irrigation is patented by African Intellectual Property 0rganisation under number 16025/BOPI/07/13.

In general, our solutions are intended for farmers in order to modernize their production system, in particular the management of irrigation, fertilization and watering. This segment of the population has been marginalized by the technological evolution of the past decades. This finding is even more alarming at the level of displaced populations and in the sites where migrants and refugees come together. Tech-Innov regularly undertakes (in collaboration with technical partners), participatory studies and diagnostics with these populations so that together we arrive at an exhaustive inventory of the difficulties and problems they encounter in their lives as displaced persons. The most recurrent problems are mainly undernourishment, the lack of a source of supply of basic necessities and idleness. With Tech-Innov solutions (Tele-Irrigation, Bio Fertilizer, auto watering, digital farm ...) these populations can produce their own food, supply the security stock while creating wealth (decent work, generation income, participation in local and national development, etc.)

Populations displaced for various reasons (food insecurity, security crisis, economic migration) arrive in camps without resources and remain for a long time without productive and lucrative occupation. They only survive thanks to international aid (UNHCR, governments). This dependence and idleness continues to further bog these populations into precariousness and despair despite the physical and intellectual capacities which some have. This is why Tech-Innov contributes  by creating ecological digital farms (inclusive and sustainable agricultural business) for each household. This opportunity will be accompanied by a training program. In the long term, they  will have decent and sustainable employment and generate income.

Being able to irrigate crops at any time and from anywhere by phone is game-changing for farmers, as irrigation can be very time-consuming. Other remote irrigation systems require the farmer to program the irrigation on-site so that it is activated at a later stage, whereas the ‘Tele-irrigation’ system does not require the farmer to be present at the crop site or farm each time to irrigate crops or provide water for livestock; thereby, time and physical energy are saved. Moreover, the ‘Tele-irrigation’ system is adaptable, as it can be connected to any water source such as an already installed pump, well, or water tank; furthermore, the company can provide its solar pump in case a farmer has no former water source or irrigation system. In comparison, Tech-Innov’s main competitor’s product needs to be connected to a water tank installed at a certain height in order to function; moreover, it does not enable remote activation. Also with the Tele-Irrigation system, people with physical handicaps (blind, deaf, physical deformation ...) or marginalized (displaced, refugees, migrants) can practice agriculture because all the tasks of the agricultural value chain are automated and remotely controllable.

The comparative advantage with other irrigation systems on the African market resides in the invention patent of which Tele-Irrigation is the subject. Indeed the system is protected by the African Intellectual Property Organization OAPI under the number 16025 / BOPI / 07/13 for a period of 20 years.

Tele-Irrigation is an integrated solution (soft and hard) which allows remote control of irrigation, fertilization, watering thanks to mobile, solar and IOT sensors. The kit consists of an energy source (battery), valves or pumps, a GSM module of a mobile app connected to an IVR interactive voice server supported by a multilingual database. The main functionalities of the device are among others: remote control, automation (irrigation, fertilization and watering), data modeling (collection, analysis, visualization and decision-making), real-time monitoring of the vegetative cycle of plants.

To activate these systems and all his functions, farmers call Tech-Innov’s server number from their mobile phones. As per the system, an automatic application has been set up to answer the phone, recognized the customer's login, and then connect itself to the system to remotely control it by triggering a request sent by secure sms on the GSM module of the kit . The choice of the operation to execute is done by numbered key contained in a dashboard (menu).

The Tele-Irrigation innovation has been developed since 2010 by the social entrepreneur Abdou Maman. But it was in 2013 that he created the company Tech-Innov to market this concept. Since then we have installed several kits at over 150 farms across Niger totaling an average of 220 hectares for more than 450 households (around 3000 people).. The customer acquisition method is simple: i) we prospect these potential customers through our networks of approved prescribers (cooperatives, agricultural associations and federations, structures specializing in agricultural advisory support), we also use communication channels classic (written, audio and visual newspapers) and modern notably social networks (facebook, twitter, whatsapp, skype, newsletter, mailing list ...), major meetings and scientific events (publications, journals, collogues, thing tank, forum , seminar ...). We have also our own web site (www.tele-irrigation.net).

Tele-Irrigation and its inventor have been recognized several times on the international scene: (i) 1st Prize for Social Entrepreneur in Africa 2011, (ii) Top 10 Innovation Prize For Africa 2014, (iii) Laureate "Forum Afrique 100 Innovations for a Sustainable Development "Paris 2013, (iv) Medal at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva Switzerland 2012, (v) Medal of Ecological Creation Nice France 2013, (vi) World Wide Prize for Water South Korea April 2015, (vii) 3rd Prize of the Young African Social Entrepreneur Livreville Gabon August 2015, (viii) 2nd Climate Start-up COP22.

https://www.ifdd.francophonie.org/ressources/ressources-pub-desc.php?id=468

http://tele-irrigation.net/data/documents/Reference-Tele-Irrigation.pdf

Tech-Innov innovations (Tele-Irrigation, Digital Farm, Bio fertilizer, auto watering ...) allow farmers to remotely control irrigation, fertilization, watering, real-time collection of meteorological and hydrological data, visualization and data modeling interactively and instantly. These service offers bring producers time and energy savings, water savings, increased production and income, instantaneousness and real time in the activities of the agricultural value chain, improvement of their living and working environment, protecting and preserving the environment through their mobile phone. So after the adoption of the telephone as a communication and exchange tool by the communities, we are in the process of erecting it as an instrument of agricultural production by subcontracting to it the recurrent tasks of agriculture, in particular irrigation, fertilization, watering and production monitoring. So Tech-Innov wants to move from the era of agricultural mechanization to the era of agricultural automation. This paradigm shift will bring to the world economy a new generation of entrepreneurs (AgriTechPreneur) who are adept at this new agricultural work tool, namely the mobile. This new generation of AgriTechPreneurs is made up of young people and women who represent more than 65% (OIT) of the African population and they are the most threatened by the plagues that the planet lives in recent years namely food insecurity, security crises, migration, unemployment and idleness. These scourges push them to move to converge in refugee camps or take the perilous path of migration. According to a survey that we conducted in collaboration with our partners (Danish Refugee Council, Heck Eper and Sahel Bio) the main reasons for the displacement of populations in Niger are economic and security (80% of them claim to be in permanent insecurity ).

By bringing these displaced communities the possibility of becoming AgriTechPreneurs through their phones, Tech-Innov not only helps to give hope to these desperate and marginalized but also allow the return to land of this category of valid arm that we risk lose forever. This AgriTechPreneur opportunity could also interest the diaspora in search of a viable and sustainable economic model that will encourage them to take the opposite path of south / north migration.

After 7 years of activity Tech-Innov has impacted (with its own capabilities) on the lives of more than 3000 people and the creation of 150 AgriTechPreneurs. These results have made it possible for more than 5,000 people to return to land, to abandon the use of more than 1,000 fuel-powered pumps in favor of renewable energy, the loss and wastage of water are reduced by more than 60%, target farmers have almost doubled their income, child labor on irrigated areas has also been reduced, young girls have returned to school (dropping water), some young candidates for migration found inspiration in this technology.
Galvanized by these results Tech-Innov intends to impact the lives of 4,000 people in one year and create 135 AgriTechPreneurs in 8 refugee camps in Niger through a multi-stakeholder partnership
For the next 5 years to come we are planning the creation of 1,220 AgriTechPreneurs across West Africa for around 1,085,000 people impacted through a solid partnership with partners such as the International Organization for Migration OIM, the High Commission to UNHCR Refugees, the Danish Refugees Council DRC, the WFP World Food Program....

To accelerate its growth and facilitate access and appropriation of its innovations Tech-Innov has embarked on a vast five-year development program (2020-2024) to scale up its activities, broken down into 3 axes:

1. Technical and technological reinforcement: this involves optimizing the production processes of innovations (facilitating access and appropriation by young people), skills enhancement and deployment capacity (distribution) in order to cover the '' the whole territory of Niger (acquisition of at least 500 additional customers for the 2020-2021 campaign;

2. Penetration of the West African market segment: Tech-Innov plans to conquer other neighboring markets which have the same climato-ecological characteristics as Niger, in particular Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria and the Côte d 'Ivoire with the goal of enrolling more than 2 million customers before the end of 2024.

3. R&D Research and Development and conquering the market segment of the Mediterranean basin: Tech-Innov's development plan provides for the strengthening of the R&D team to improve the quality of our innovations and to produce others in order to to better serve farmers. The goal is to mobilize and impact the lives of more than 6 million people.

For the implementation of this 2020-2024 five-year development plan, especially in its axis 1, Tech-Innov aims first of all to integrate and have visibility within the Solver community of MIT in order to mobilize capable partners to allow him to achieve his goals. Then build on this partnership to initiate the process of penetration of other African market segments, Mediterranean basin ...

As part of the implementation of its Tech-Innov development program comes up against difficulties including technical, organizational, financial and cultural. Currently, the major obstacle to large-scale dissemination of Tech-Innov’s innovations lies in the purchasing power of its potential customers, particularly displaced people (refugees and migrants). Added to this is the conservatism of some farmers. Indeed they are largely resistant to change, the leap into the unknown is always perceived as a very risky adventure.

Beyond the difficulties encountered by its potential customers, Tech-Innov also faces a technical organizational and financial problem. Tech-Innov is having difficulty accessing finance adapted to social enterprises (impact investment, and assistance). Added to this is the lack of continuous technical development of its solutions (updating, R&D) as well as the absence of a structured partnership framework with specialized players.

Tech-Innov's five-year development plan (2020-2024) provides possible solutions to these technical, organizational, financial and cultural difficulties.

To overcome these technical, organizational, financial and cultural difficulties, we have undertaken the following actions:

1. Financial aspect: Regarding the purchasing power of our potential customers: Tech-Innov approached financial institutions and development of the place to facilitate access to credit, guarantee, agricultural insurance and subsidies for these poor customers. Tech-Innov has also embarked on a program to optimize and industrialize its processes for producing innovations in order to considerably reduce the cost of its solutions. Still on the financial aspect Tech-Innov intensifies its research and the identification of the sources of financing adapted to its activities (social business) in particular impact investment funds, business angels.

2. Technical aspect: Tech-Innov plans in its 2020-2024 development plan a modernization program and the upgrading of its solutions as well as a strengthening of the intervention and distribution capacity (commercial marketing).

3. Organizational aspect: the mobilization of partners constitutes a fundamental axis for the expansion of Tech-Innov's activities. This is why Tech-Innov is working to set up a structuring partnership framework with organizations specialized in the agricultural field. Tech-Innov is also preparing to reinforce its governance by opening its capital to impact investors.

4. Cultural aspect: Tech-Innov addresses this subject through a communication, information and education program for target communities on the scope and positive impacts of agricultural automation.

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Tech-Innov currently employs 7 permanent agents including 3 engineers, 2 senior technicians and 2 support staff. Added to this are 4 contract workers and 2 trainees. For the completion of complementary works, in particular civil engineering, plumbing, agricultural support Tech-Innov has a network of subcontractors made up of 6 six specialized companies with over 7 seven employs each one.

The Tele-Irrigation system is a patented work of Abdou Maman who is the founder of Tech-Innov. He is an IT developer with a solid experience on the issue of irrigation water management. He comes from a farming family and has lived all his life in an almost desert area where the scarcity of water and the rapid drying up of groundwater are the daily concern of the population. Capturing and dewatering irrigation water has become a panacea for local farmers. To put his experience at the service of producers, Abdou Maman is assisted by an agricultural engineer specializing in support and assistance to producers, a hydraulic engineer with experience of more than 15 years in the installation of pipes and distribution of irrigation water. This combination of these 3 specialists with complementary skills and experience gathered in the same organization (Tech-Innov) exploiting a patent of invention constitutes a unique positioning to solve the problem of irrigation in every cases like in refugies and migrant sites.

Tech-Innov currently collaborates with 3 categories of partners, namely:

- Technical partners

- Financial partners

- Subcontractors

The technical partners are i) the mobile operators, in particular Orange and Airtel, which is responsible for the delivery of our Machine to Machine (M2M) exchanges for our operations, ii) the agricultural operators, in particular the GIE-Acord and the Chamber Network Agricultures du Niger RECA.

The financial partners are local banks, in particular the agricultural bank of  Niger BAGRI, the Bank Of Africa BOA Niger and the African Solidarity Fund FSA.

Subcontractors: these are mainly local companies manufacturing and supplying irrigation equipment, energy, agricultural inputs and civil engineering.

Tech-Innov provides products that cater to the water-energy-food security Nigerien nexus. The scarcity of energy is addressed with the irrigation system that makes use of solar energy—ֹan abundant and free energy source—to power the water pump. By making farmers use renewable energy to power pumps, Tech-Innov helps address the issue of climate change by reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. This is a major concern for the Nigerien rural population, which is greatly vulnerable to extreme weather events such as severe droughts, which are aggravated by climate change.

As Niger is an arid country, water is a resource that has to be handled mindfully. Tech-Innov provides the ‘Meteo-Mobile’ that measures air temperature, pluviometry, wind speed, solar irradiation, and humidity levels on the cultivation area. Farmers can have access to this information by calling the ‘Tele-irrigation’ system’s number. This enables farmers to irrigate their crops based on the weather and thereby use water resources wisely. Moreover, it is also possible to set up a Short Message Service (SMS) alarm which alerts the farmer if specific climatic events occur, such as rain outside the rainy season or an unusually low humidity level.

To acquire these Tech-Innov services, the producer pays the costs related to the materials with a fee (license) to use the solution and an optional annual subscription for technical assistance (upkeep and maintenance) and production support.

To date, the Ecological Digital Farm (FD-20'000) is TECH-INNOV's flagship product which is a package of all its agricultural innovations and accessories. It is a set which is made up:

- telecom equipment

- a solar station made up of wc photovoltaic panels, batteries, a converter, a regulator, a meter and electrical accessories

- a solar pump

- a water tower

- a water kiosk

- a water distribution network

- a housing area for the production of organic manure

- a closed perimeter

- a voice application and telecom equipment for remote control

These main features and advantages are:

- remote control of the irrigation system using a mobile phone

- on-site production of the necessary energy (solar)

- real-time collection of meteorological and hydrological data

- optimization of working time and manpower

- water saving

- an increase in production (yield)

- Better crop control and planning

- the protection of the environment

- the construction of a climate database over several years.

The price of an FD-20,000 is accessible to the average farmer. Although this represents a significant initial investment, the return on investment is very short (around 2 years). It’s a very profitable business model in the medium and long term.

Also, TECH-INNOV's payment terms are flexible since it requires a deposit of

40%, payable in advance, and the balance upon receipt. The installation time for an FD-20'000 can be up to 6 months.

Periodically Tech-Innov also receives subsidies from its technical and financial partners.

The challenges of Tech-Innov are technical, organizational, financial and cultural. Our ambition by participating in the MIT Solver program is to have specific support on each of these challenges:

1. Technical and financial aspect: to facilitate Tech-Innov's mobilization of financial partners with impacts, on the one hand to allow marginalized populations to access agricultural innovations and on the other hand to establish with MIT teams a formal partnership framework in order to optimize and industrialize Tech-Innov processes and strengthen the R&D team.
2. Organizational and cultural aspect: Solve MIT can support Tech-Innov to set up solid governance and regional leadership so that our theory of change can have a more positive impact on the marginalized population. Tech-Innov therefore wants Solve MIT to support it in implementing capacity building plans and agile methodologies in terms of marketing and communication.

The strong growth in activities has made it possible to identify the current strengths and weaknesses of TECH-INNOV, among which we can cite:

- A weakness of the organization on the administrative, financial and technical levels
- A non-standardized technical production process leading to additional costs during the execution of projects;
- Insufficient human resources on the technical, financial and accounting levels
- The absence of an accounting and financial system
It is to deal with all of the weaknesses identified above coupled with a significant potential for marketing opportunities for its innovations for the next five (5) years that TECH¬-INNOV wishes to effect structural, organizational and which will enable it to achieve the following priority partnership objectives:
Solution technology
Product / service distribution
Technological solution
Product / service distribution
Funding and revenue model
Talent recruitment
Board members or advisors
Marketing, media, and exposure

Tech-Innov first wishes to integrate the MIT Solver community for experience sharing and international visibility, then to associate with specialized teams including:

• Entrepreneurship on the digitalization of agriculture (Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, Sandbox Innovation Fund, MIT Startup Exchange

- The industrial engineering laboratory (D-Lab)

- Creative Associates International

- USAID (West African Trade and Innvestment Hub )

Tech-Innov has a wealth of experience in the deployment of modern agricultural farms in environments at high risk of insecurity, particularly in northern Niger (the Ténéré desert, along Lake Chad and the border with Mali). In these areas we have installed more than a dozen farms.

We plan to use The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion to deploy eight (8) Ecological Digital Farms of approximately 4 hectares each at the level of 8 large refugee centers in Niger, namely: Diffa (120,000 Nigerian refugees) Sayam Camp and Diffa ville, Mainé; Maradi sites (around 38,000 Nigerian refugees) in Garin kaka (Chadakori commune), Dan dagi makaou (Guidan Roumdji commune), Guidan Roumdji (transit site); Tillaberi (Malian refugees) Abala: 15647, Ouallam relocation site: 5257; INTIKANE Tahoua Camp.

Traditionally women engage in small-scale market gardening activities around the shallows, given their low irrigation capacity, which is also done manually from the source of water to the plot then at the root of the plant.

These activities (water fetching and irrigation) are practiced two (2) times in the day in the morning from 7H to 11H and in the evening from 15H to 18H, that is to say more than 8 hours of exhausting work per day to the detriment of household tasks (maintenance home, child rearing). This situation has a considerable impact on their lives (deterioration of health, schooling of girls…). Tech-Innov's innovations tackle these problems by empowering women by allowing them to subcontract these restrictive activities (fetching water, manual irrigation) over the phone, solar energy and IOT sensors, thus providing them with saving time, preserving health, saving water, generating additional income and protecting the environment.
The Innovation for Women Prize will allow us to set up Digital farms for around 300 marginalized women in order to improve their living conditions.

Tech-Innov's Ecological Digital Farm is an inclusive and sustainable fully automated company. It allows beneficiaries to have decent jobs, renumerators. and motivating. As of today Tech-Innov has enabled more than 250 young people to set up on their own account (self-employment) while contributing to the local economy.

Our objective for the next 3 years is to help curb the migratory flow of young people to Europe and even succeed in reversing the trend, that is to say to interest young people in the diasporara for a return to the fold by offering them a viable economic model as an alternative.
This is why we believe that The GM Prize on Good Jobs and Inclusive Entrepreneurship will allow us to sedentarize and fix in their terroir the candidates for migration but also to convince those who are already engaged in the advance to give up.

Tech-Inov's solutions (Tele-Irrigation, Intelligent Bio Fertilizer, Automatic Watering, Mobile Weather, Discreet Scanner) are based on digital. They promote digital access for populations marginalized by the technological development of recent decades. These solutions also contribute to digital education and learning while accessing decent work and inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship.
Tech-Innov's 2020-2024 development plan provides for an expansion of our activities in Europe and along the Mediterranean basin. Portugal is therefore a potential destination for Tech-Innov. This is why we believe that The Gulbenkian Award for Adult Literacy will allow Tech-Innov on the one hand to try a pilot in Portugal and on the other hand to accompany the expansion of our solutions around the world.

The “Tele-Irrigation” which is the matrix of all Tech-Innov innovations, is a process (soft and hard) allowing the remote control of the irrigation system of a farm regardless of time and space via cell phone IOT sensors according to intelligent water distribution (needs, quantity, time, speculation, growing cycle, etc.) with the possibility of real-time collection of meteorological and hydrological data, namely temperature, humidity, rainfall , solar radiation speed and air quality (Patent n ° 16025 OAPI / BOPI / 07/13). This solution is entirely based on remote data collection for the modeling and management of irrigation water and predictive analysis of production.
This is why we believe that the AI for Humanity Prize will allow us to evolve our processes in order to better serve our potential customers and to have a greater impact on the consumption of humanity.

Tech-Innov is a social enterprise with the status of limited liability company (SARL) under Nigerien law with a capital of 5 million CFA Francs. It was created in 2013 to manage, operate and market the Tele-Irrigation system and its derivatives: Intelligent Bio Fertilizer, Automatic Watering, Rural Drinking Water Kiosk, Weather-Mobile, Discreet Scanner, Digital Farm, Urban Irrigation.

To accelerate its growth and facilitate access and appropriation of its innovations Tech-Innov has embarked on a vast five-year development program (2020-2024) for scaling up declined in 3 axes:
4. Technical and technological capacity building
5. Penetration of the West African market segment
6. R&D Research and Development
For the implementation of this 2020-2024 five-year development plan, in particular in its axis 1, Tech-Innov is looking for active partners and impact investors (equity, borrowing and technical assistance) capable of engaging with it to meet the challenges of agriculture and African youth. This is why we believe that the Future Planet Capital Prize could be a good partner for Tech-Innov.