A Ghanaian startup aiScarecrow Technologies has won the maiden Ingenuity Cup global innovation competition which seeks to unearth disruptive innovations within 40 days among young innovators from various countries.
The competition came about as part of Ingenuity Cup’s mission to “demonstrate to the world that innovation and ingenuity are one of humanity’s signature strengths.” The maiden competition tasked participants to come up with an innovation that is worth solving an existing problem.
In view of that aiScarecrow technology presented a scarecrow which intend to provide an eco-friendly solution to pest bird infestations in farms.
A press statement issued by aiScarecrow stated that the decision was informed by “the menace of pest birds sweeping through rice, millet and sorghum farms and consuming the crop of farmers, as a result, farmers have to spend all their time in the bird scaring exercise averaging 8-10 hours a day. These farmers tend to lose 15-20% of their yield to these pest birds and if left unchecked, loses can be as worrying as 100%.
Even more worrying is the fact that most of the conventional methods of bird scaring like the clanging of metals and shouting are proven to be ineffective with time. It was this need that inspired the team behind aiScarecrow technologies,” the statement added.
This crop protection start-up identified a peculiar need in the cereal value chain that has had little or no technological intervention whatsoever.
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According to the statement the team, upon receiving this US$20,000 has decided to expand its tentacles into other forms of pest control, weedicide and fertilizer application as well as mapping using large industry standard agricultural drones. Aside winning the cash prize the group also have the opportunity to compete in the 2025 Space Competition.
In second place was the ‘Farmily’ a group that came up with an application that can connect family members virtually. Their goal with this app is to build a better world by bridging the underlying communication gap within families. By playing together on the app they not only gain a common communication platform but can earn real-life experiences and ultimately strengthen their bond.
In third place was ‘AlleVo Minds’ a group which developed a new safety, security and mental wellbeing tracking application which is psychometrics-driven and user centered.
According to the statement, the mobile solution will pre-empt the root causes of workplace burnout in enterprise workers enabling enterprises to sustain their competitive advantage by providing psychological and physical safe workplaces for happy, healthy and resilient workforces in an endemic world.”
AiScarecrow Technologies is an AgTech startup borne out of the Kosmos Innovations Center’s (KIC) Agritech challenge in 2019. The company uses an eco-friendly way to ward off pest birds from cereal farms using aural and visual aids that are biologically understood by the birds and work on their natural fear instincts hence effectively triggering a fright and flight mechanism in them causing them to flee saving the farmer valuable time and money.
The team behind aiScarecrow technologies include Silas Karikari Boateng, Mary Aboagye, Isaac Boakye, Bright Tetteh Kwao and Boris Boadi.
Ingenuity Cup Global Innovation Competition
It all began on the April 21, 2021, World Innovations Day, a day dedicated to ingenuity and creativity. Throughout 40 days, all teams were provided with expert Neuro Innovation training and innovation management technology by BlueCallom Corp, the Ingenuity Cup anchor sponsor.
BlueCallom Corp pioneered a neuroscience-based ideation and innovation methodology, challenging conventional innovation and brainstorming methods to create disruptive solutions. BlueCallom is founded by a duo of serial entrepreneurs, Axel Schultze and Marita Schultze, who bring experience building four innovative, billion-dollar companies.
