Partners

Crescendo Foods LBG is a women-founded and led NGO that provides consulting services in finished products, packaging design, recipe and menu development, food safety, and food quality.

Crescendo was created to furnish support for early-stage culinary entrepreneurs. The mission is to provide a nurturing environment for culinary entrepreneurs at any stage (local and visiting), delivering affordable culinary solutions necessary for long-term success. In conjunction with local partners, Crescendo has developed an accelerator program that works with communities through four phases to build sustainable businesses from the farm to distribution. They also offer affordable access to a shared commercial kitchen facility that provides equipment needs of many of the food industry’s diverse groups of entrepreneurs: personal chefs, licensed chefs, caterers, bakers, and producers of specialty foods. Through networking (virtual and non-virtual spaces), they develop partnerships with local grocery chains and co-operatives that serve as distribution channels for entrepreneurs’ products.

Digital Transformation of Agriculture

Technology has a major role in farming and agriculture practices, and with the advent of digital technology, the scope has widened. Innovation in agriculture is leading an evolution in agricultural practices, reducing losses and increasing efficiency. The use of digital and analytical tools is driving continuous improvement in agriculture, a trend that is likely here to stay, resulting in improved crop yields and increased farming community incomes.

PFG & FourthWave Technologies established a strategic partnership with the vision to lead rural development in Africa. The PFG project in Ghana will be the on-the-ground pilot to establish scalable agricultural sustainability operations and management training programs for rural farmers that can be deployed continent-wide. FourthWave will provide their tech solutions to be incorporated into the education and training activities conducted by PFG.

FourthWave is woman-owned and led, South Africa based company, best known for developing and leveraging disruptive technologies to solve business and socio-economic challenges. To empower Africa, their agricultural Mobile Application, powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions, offers the following features and benefits:

Crop advisory support – crop types, standard practices, and crop health
Crop monitoring calendar with comprehensive tracking of crop progress and yield
Detection of cropping patterns and predictions for the future of the crop and historical performance
Water stress and drought assessment
Weather and pricing information
A digital ecosystem comprised of companies selling farming inputs such as fertilizers, seeds, micro-lending institutions, aggregators, and biotechnology institutions.
E-commerce/e-vouchers for buying inputs and selling products to buyers
Performs crop growth analysis to monitor risk in real-time and expand the lending portfolio
Farmers Forum to enable farmer collaboration and engagement
Supply chain & demand planning to reduce oversupply and waste
Access to markets for regional and international exports