TECH-INNOV : TELE-IRRIGATION

Abdou Maman is a social entrepreneur and computer scientist, specializing in Information and Communication Technology ICT. He is currently the Founding Director of the social enterprise Tech-Innov.

He has carried out several works in the field of intelligent agriculture, in particular the automated management of irrigation water, fertilization, wastering.

As such, he carried out and developed a package of social innovations in the field of water and environmental management to allow the population living in rural areas access to technology, adapt to climate change and fight poverty effectively (Tele-Irrigation, Bio Fertilizer, Auto Watering ...)

Abdou Maman holds a patent for invention: patent n°16025BOPI/07/13OAPI (African Intellectual Property Organization) and is the author of several scientific publications.

Abdou Maman has been distinguished several times on the international scene, including the 2015 World Water Prize in South Korea and 2nd climate startup at COP22 MOROCCO 2016.

VideoBio

https://youtu.be/17M20hkQmx4

Publications

http://www.convergences.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Baromètre-de-lentrepreneuriat-social-2020.pdf

https://www.ifdd.francophonie.org/media/docs/publications/468_IEPF_no92_interactif_reduit.pdf

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/forum/download.php?doc=414

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

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, and now Covid 19). 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.

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, preserve health, increase irrigable area, production and income, control of water, empowerment of women, education of young people and fight against the spread from Covid 19 by remotework.

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.   

Another challenge in Niger in recent years has been the growing number of people linked to food insecurity, security crises, economic migration and confinement. 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, 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 recent health crisis linked to the pandemic of Covid19 which caused the confinement over 1.855.000 persons.

To make a contribution to this quadriple challenges (development, migration arduousness of agriculture and Covid19) 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 (remotework).

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 39% in 2013. 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 idleness and recently the spread of Covid19. With Abdou Maman's solutions these populations can produce their own food, supply the security stock while creating wealth (decent work, generation income, participation in local and national development, fight against the spread from Covid 19 by remotework).

This precarious situation of vulnerable populations in Niger is almost identical in several regions of the world. We commit ourselves to put all our efforts to bring answers to these problems everywhere in the world where the need arises.

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 short term, they  will have decent and sustainable employment and generate income.

I am a native of Zinder, a region of Niger characterized by a recurrence of drought and a virtual absence of large permanent rivers causing chronic water scarcity. Coming from a family of farmers, I lived this situation all my youth and the daily life of my community in its permanent quest for water. This plague caused a physical deformation of my body because currently my left arm is arched (a badly repaired fracture) following a fall with a load of water in the head.

These indelible marks always haunt me and regularly push me to a deep reflection on the alternatives to this problem so that I avoid these faults to my communities and to the others who are in the same situation.

After obtaining my baccalaureate and my orientation at the University of Niamey in 1991, I chose the IT field to learn how to solve business problems through the computer.

So for my memory, I developed an M2M application to remotely trigger an electric water pump. The concept won the 1st African Social Entrepreneur Award in Cape Town, South Africa at the AfricaCom event. This is the start of my experience as a social entrepreneur and solver.

Our Tele-Irrigation solution automates the activities of the agricultural value chain including irrigation, fertilization, watering. In fact, in Africa and particularly in Niger, agriculture has been manual and rudimentary for a long time, while it is the main source of food for the population. In addition, this sector has not benefited much from the technological evolution of recent years characterized by a dazzling entry of the telephone and the Internet which have changed the way of functioning of all sectors of activity in the world. Anxious to bring this sector into the digital age and contribute to the improvement of the living and working conditions of farmers (whose difficulties we experienced in our youth) we have embarked on a process of digital transformation from this sector in order to contribute to the fight against poverty, food insecurity, unemployment. Our fight is also part of an empowerment of women, education of young girls and the fight against illegal migration and exodus.

I am a social entrepreneur and computer scientist by training (developer), specializing in Information and Communication Technology ICT with 23 years of experience in developing business solutions. For the past 7 years, I have been the Founding Director of the social enterprise Tech-Innov, which specializes in the dissemination and popularization of digital innovations for agricultural development in Africa.
I have developed a package of social innovations in the field of water and environmental management to allow people living in rural areas access to technology, adapt to climate change and fight poverty effectively.
I hold an invention patent: patent n ° 16025 BOPI 07/13 issued by the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI).
I have international references: 1st Prize for Social Entrepreneur in Africa 2011, Winner "Forum Africa 100 Innovations for Sustainable Development" Paris 2013, Medal at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva Switzerland 2012, Medal for Ecological Creation Nice France 2013, Hassan II World Grand Prix for Water South Korea April 2015, (vii) 3rd Prize for Young African Social Entrepreneur Livreville Gabon August 2015, 2nd Climate Start-up COP22.

This capital of experience allows me to make my contribution in the fight for the digitalization of African agriculture.

In Africa and particularly in Niger, water is increasingly scarce, its management and conservation is part of the combatant's journey. This situation is sometimes considered a fatality leading farmers to total resignation (abandonment of land, drastic reduction of irrigated areas, exodus, displacement of population, social conflicts, banditry, terrorism). The socio-economic fabric is deteriorating more and more. With our solution for controlling and optimizing water through the automation of irrigation and its remote control, we have succeeded in bringing about a significant change in this area, in particular by arousing renewed interest in agriculture among youth. We also managed to sedentarize them and fix them in their land. Agriculture has started to regain its place in the local economy (increased production by increasing irrigable areas. Young people are increasingly abandoning their perilous plans to cross the Sahara for Europe.

In a community where water scarcity is a recurring problem, young people have regained hope and agriculture is once again becoming their main activity thanks to our digital solutions.

But before arriving at these results we were very misunderstood by the population who very difficultly picture the link between water and the telephone. I am even qualified as crazy of the community.

In my community, the water problem is a concern common to the entire population. The situation has persisted for decades. The population completely desperate. Several major programs and initiatives have been tried, but to no avail. With our Tele-Irrigation solution we have managed to give hope to an entire community and to Africa. The young people finally found an alternative for their life plans. Young people identify with us and consult us for their future plans.

In addition, after the creation of the Tech-Innov company, I was also able to give it the image of an efficient company, responding to specific needs in terms of quality and leadership in the promotion of agriculture. It is worth to me today to be systematically associated with projects related to these issues by international NGOs, donors and the State. As such, I am regularly consulted for the development of national and regional programs in order to effectively achieve the objectives of these partners. As an example, I had the honor to accompanying the Niger President of the Republic to the Smart Africa Summit 2017 Kigali (Rwanda) to present Niger's efforts in the field of digitalisation of the agriculture and inspire other African countries.

la

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.

Tech-Innov solutions (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 services offers bring producers time and energy savings, water control, 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 earth, to abandon the use of more than 1,000 fuel-powered motor 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 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). 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.

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.

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 Banque Agricole du 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.

Since its installation Tech-Innov has benefited from several sources of financing, operating revenues, loans and guarantees and price subsidies.

For grants in the form of prizes:

1st Prize of the Social Entrepreneur in Africa

France Telecom Orange and Africacom.

 Cap Town South Africa November 2011 25,000 $ US

 Top 10 Innovation Prize For Africa

Foundation for Innovation in Africa Abudja Nigeria May 2014

 10,000 $ US

Hassan II World Grand Prix for Water South Korea

World Water Council and Kingdom of Morocco Daegu South Korea April 2015

 100,000 $ US

3rd Prize of the Young African Company Libreville Gabon

New York Forum Africa, Point Afrique and France 24 Libreville Gabon

 August 2015 10,000 $ US

For the bank loan:

Banque Of Africa BOA Niger US $ 225,000 in 2013

African Solidarity Fund FSA guaranteed at 80% of the loan

Agricultural Bank of Niger  BAGRI US $ 113,000

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 realize our 2020-2024 development plan, Tech-Innov needs ACTIVE TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL PARTNERS in the following areas: Support - Equity - Investment Fund and Impact Investment.

With these partners, we plan to raise the following amounts before the end of 2020: Equity: 25%, Investment credit: $ 1250K; Grant: $ 300K

Expenditure forecasts for 2020 have been adopted based on negotiations with local technical partners (in particular WFP, IOM, UNHCR, Acted and Spanish Red Cross), the potential detected and above all by applying a great measure of prudence by planning moderate growth, well below the potential identified. TECH-INNOV's forecast 2020 expenditure figures are estimated at $ 168,000

The challenges of Tech-Innov are technical, organizational, financial and cultural. Our ambition by participating in the Elevate Prize 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 Elevate Prize 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: Elevate Prize 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 Elevate Prize 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 Elevate Prize 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)

. SMARTRAC

. JAIN Irrigation USA

. Californian Tomato Growers Association CTGA

. Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association GFVGA