A Kenyan woman,\u00a0Esther Kimani,\u00a0has won the prestigious Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation organized by the Royal Academy of Engineering.<\/p>\n
Ms\u00a0Kimani becomes the third woman in Africa and the second woman in Kenya to win such a prestigious award after\u00a0Edmund Wessels\u00a0alongside Anatoli Kirigwajjo\u00a0from South Africa,\u00a0who\u00a0were named joint winners in 2023.<\/p>\n
Ms Kimani received Sh 8.1million (\u00a350,000), the largest ever awarded in the history of the Africa Prize, which she said will help her develop her device and expand its reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI aim to scale up my Innovation so that it can benefit one million farmers in Kenya in the next five years,\u201d Kimani said.<\/p>\n
Ms Kimani who studied Computer Science at the University of Eldoret (formerly known as Chepkoilel Campus of Moi University) from 2015 to 2019, started her solar-powered innovation back on\u00a0campus.<\/p>\n
Her solar-powered innovation uses artificial intelligence and machine learning and can easily detect and identify agricultural pests and diseases at farms.<\/p>\n
\u201cAm very happy to win this prestigious award, I look forward to scaling it (her innovation) to other\u00a0five countries in Africa to help farmers control pests at the farm level,\u201d said\u00a0Ms\u00a0Kimani during the award ceremony in Nairobi.<\/p>\n
She further added that while growing up she saw her parents losing up to 40\u00a0per cent\u00a0of their crops each farming season, which affected their living standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are empowering small-scale farmers, many of whom are women, to increase their income,\u201d\u00a0Ms\u00a0Kimani\u00a0said<\/p>\n
Her innovation stands out for its capacity to reduce crop losses for smallholder farmers by up to 30\u00a0per cent, while simultaneously increasing yields by 40\u00a0per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis device offers a much-needed solution for the five million smallholder farmers in Kenya, who typically lose about 33% of their crops to pests and diseases,\u201d adds\u00a0Ms\u00a0Kimani.<\/p>\n
She further said the technology works 24 hours seven days promising up-to-date results.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe detection works 24\/7,\u201d she noted. \u201cThe camera can detect any pests and disease with an accuracy of 97\u00a0per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since most of the smallholder farmers have half or one acre,\u00a0Ms\u00a0Kimani adds that its\u00a0camera can detect pests with a radius of 600 meters. \u201cThis means one camera can serve 3 acres of land,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n
The device is also affordable as it can be leased for only Sh 386 (\u00a33) per month. It also offers cost-effective methods as compared to hiring drones or agricultural inspectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cAm going to use this money to ensure that the device will stretch to a radius of 1500 meters, this will help double the number of farmers to 10,000. Currently I am working with only 5000 farmers,\u201d she reiterates.<\/p>\n
Ms\u00a0Kimani\u2019s victory is not only a personal achievement but a beacon of hope for the future of African agriculture, promising increased productivity and sustainability for smallholder farmers across the continent.<\/p>\n
The AI agricultural tool operates by utilising computer vision algorithms and advanced machine learning to accurately detect and identify crop pests, pathogens, and diseases, as well as the specific nature of the infection or infestation.<\/p>\n
Once detected, the device sends real-time alerts within five seconds to the farmer via SMS, providing tailored intervention suggestions. It also notifies government agricultural officers about the presence of diseases or pests, aiding in broader agricultural management efforts.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Kenyan woman,\u00a0Esther Kimani,\u00a0has won the prestigious Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation organized by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Ms\u00a0Kimani becomes the third woman in Africa and the second woman in Kenya to win such a prestigious award after\u00a0Edmund Wessels\u00a0alongside Anatoli Kirigwajjo\u00a0from South Africa,\u00a0who\u00a0were named joint winners in 2023. Ms Kimani received Sh 8.1million (\u00a350,000), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}