AgTech innovators asked to focus on home-grown solutions

KAMPALA - Young AgTech innovators have been urged to focus on developing home-grown solutions to reduce reliance on costly foreign technologies.

The call was made by the ICT state minister Godfrey Kabyanga Baluku, while officiating at the awards ceremony for youth AgriTech innovators at Speke Resort Munyonyo on June 19, 2025.

One of the pressing challenges Kabyanga wants the youth to address through innovation is the imbalance in food production, where some regions experience bumper harvests while others face shortages.

He also called on AgTech innovators to improve access to quality agro-inputs and ensure farmers can easily obtain key agricultural technologies, such as seed, to enhance both food security and market opportunities.

“Seed is very important; sometimes we put the right seed in the wrong place, and that is causing us a lot of headaches and low productivity. But we are also having a bumper harvest and not getting a market. So those are the problems. I want the young people to get interested in it,” Kabyanga said.

However, for the innovations to be successful, Kabyanga emphasised the need for support from a range of stakeholders, including government, investors, financial institutions, and corporations, through partnerships.

He assured young innovators of government support through the expansion of the National Backbone Infrastructure to improve internet connectivity across the country, particularly in rural areas.

He added that the government is expanding this infrastructure from the initial 43 districts to cover all 146 districts, complemented by the rollout of ICT innovation hubs beyond Kampala to other districts.

Another intervention is the reduction in internet fees, from $75 per megabyte per second to $35, with plans to lower it further to $5 per megabyte per second.

“Our intervention as government is the reduction of internet costs to as low as $5 per megabyte per second because these young people cannot succeed without connectivity and internet,” he added.

Kabyanga stressed that the goal is to enable young people to develop more home-grown solutions using reliable internet connectivity. “I am not saying that foreigners shouldn’t come, but they always come with so many conditions,” he said.

At the same event, Surita Sandosham, president and CEO of Heifer International, explained that their support to young innovators extends beyond seed capital.

She said that, in addition to funding, they engage youth along the value chain, build innovation systems, and connect them to funding, markets, and networking opportunities across sectors.

“We believe that this will ensure that the kind of solutions they build are sustainable and scalable because the success of these young AgTech innovators is about collaboration, collective action so as to reshape Africa’s food systems,” Sandosham explained.

Adesuwa Ifedi, senior vice president for Africa programmes at Heifer International, spoke about the journey of the AYuTe initiative. She said that since its launch in 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative has uncovered a growing group of young innovators who are transforming the agriculture sector.

She reiterated the need to invest in these emerging partners—young AgTech innovators passionate about agriculture, who are addressing challenges, creating jobs, and strengthening Africa’s food security.

“We are excited to see this change. HEIFER has provided grants to de-risk these AgTech innovations and drive change among lending institutions that the once-risky sector is actually investable,” Adesuwa added.

Commenting on the AYuTe NextGen 2025 Conference, William Matovu, Heifer country director, said the initiative is not just about business creation but about building an ecosystem of innovators across the continent.

He noted that since winning the first Ugandan AYuTe award, Mark Segawa has grown his business significantly. Segawa initially offered a solution that reduces tomato diseases by 40% using grafting technology.

“I encourage our young people to look out for the programmes and connect with innovators across the country to address challenges in agriculture, but from the food systems perspective,” Matovu said.

The three-day AYuTe NextGen 2025 Conference ran from 17th to 19th and concluded with four young AgriTech innovators emerging as winners of the AYuTe NextGen 2025 competition, which focused on themes ranging from finance and microfinance in agriculture to climate innovation and telecommunications.