Innovate Africa Challenge 2026, 3rd Edition — AI-driven climate-smart agriculture
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) · Italy
Overview
FAO and the Smart Africa Secretariat are seeking AI-driven climate-smart agriculture solutions to deploy and validate in five countries, and Malawi is one of the five — alongside Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. The theme is deployment rather than discovery: precision agriculture and input optimisation, crop yield prediction, pest and disease surveillance and early warning, climate risk modelling and adaptive decision support, and water and natural resource optimisation. Winners receive deployment support, collaboration with government ministries, FAO technical expertise and validation in real agricultural settings.
Eligibility
Malawi is explicitly one of five eligible countries. FAO's STI Portal describes eligible applicants as a legally registered entity OR an individual or team, at Technology Readiness Level 3 to 6, between pre-seed and Series A funding, with an existing working or deployment-ready solution and evidence of paying customers or validated pilots, and a minimum team size of two. Register on the FAO STI Portal and read the current terms, or email FAO, before investing effort.
How to apply
Register on the FAO Science, Technology and Innovation Portal, join the challenge group, and then submit through the portal.
Timeline: Applications close 31 August 2026 (confirm on the portal) | Deployment in one of the five countries follows selection