Esoko Limited, a trailblazer in integrating technology with agriculture, has clinched the prestigious title of ‘Agritech Company of the Year’ at the Ghana Agriculture and Agro-Processing Awards (GAAPA) 2023.
This celebrated recognition underscores Esoko’s groundbreaking achievements in addressing pressing challenges in the agricultural landscape through innovative tech-driven solutions.
The Agritech firm was hailed for its groundbreaking approach to agriculture, which merges technology with traditional farming practices. The company has ushered in a new era of agricultural resilience, bolstered food security, and empowered farmers with critical insights for sustainable and innovative cultivation methods.
Expressing gratitude for the recognition, Dr. Daniel Asare-Kyei, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Esoko, emphasised the company’s steadfast commitment to deploying technology for agricultural resilience against climate change not only within Africa, but also across the world.
“Using technology to empower farmers to foster resilience to climate change and sustainable agriculture in Africa and beyond remains our hallmark, and this honour demonstrates our commitment to that goal,” he said.
This recognition, he noted, not only validates past achievements, but also fuels the company’s drive to continually push the boundaries of Agritech innovation. Esoko remains open to collaborative efforts and partnerships aimed at surmounting agricultural challenges, placing the company as a reliable ally in the sector.
“Esoko is open to collaborations and partnerships to address agricultural challenges; we see ourselves as colleagues and not competitors in the Agric sector,” Dr. Asare-Kyei remarked.
Impact
One notable triumph of Esoko’s endeavours is its collaboration with Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA), a partnership that strives to enhance climate resilience and promote climate-smart agricultural practices among rural Ghanaian farmers.
This initiative has not only achieved its mission, but has also surpassed it by delivering Climate Information Services and Climate-Smart Agriculture technologies to over 250,000 farmers in key crops, such as maize, yam, cowpea and vegetables.
Esoko’s transformative efforts extend beyond climate resilience. The company has digitally revolutionised the entire agricultural value chain through its ‘Driving Market Access & Managing AG Value Chains’ (DigiMakt) Project. This transformation has yielded greater transparency in supply chains for stakeholders like commodity aggregators, nucleus farmers, and off-takers. Farmers now have real-time access to accurate market prices and climate-smart agronomic information, projected to increase farmer incomes by over 20 percent. This strategic approach also aims to enhance operational efficiency for commodity aggregators and off-takers, ultimately contributing to sector-wide growth.
In the context of gender equality, Esoko has partnered with Plan Ghana under the Women’s Innovation and Sustainable Enterprise in Ghana (WISE) project. This collaboration has been instrumental in challenging gender norms, empowering women farmers with essential skills and financial literacy, and fostering networking opportunities for women entrepreneurs within the agriculture sector.
Esoko’s efforts resonate not just within the borders of Ghana, but reverberate on a global scale. The company’s contributions align with the broader goal of sustaining growth, boosting productivity, and driving industrialisation through elevated agricultural yields. Over 4,000 women farmers engaged in the soya bean, mushroom, bee-keeping and snail value chains have directly benefitted from Esoko’s interventions.
The company began in 2005 as Tradenet, and got incorporated as Esoko in 2008, as an initiative to see how the emergence of mobile technology in Africa could improve the lives of rural communities across the continent, especially smallholder farmers. Headquartered in Ghana, Esoko is a technology firm empowering farmers to get better market prices for their products and expert advice on agronomic practice in more than 15 local languages, and sends climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices to farmers – one text message at a time. The company serves over 1.5 million farmers, half in Ghana and the rest across 19 African countries.
Esoko is committed to improving the livelihood of underserved communities by empowering them – and the organisations that serve them – through robust technology and reliable field deployment solutions. We remain committed to our mission, ready to cultivate success for ourselves and the global farming community.
The Ghana Agriculture and Agro-Processing Awards serves as a platform to honour key contributors to the agricultural domain. Esoko Limited’s recognition among other industry players reflects the company’s exceptional dedication to quality, innovation, market leadership, business adaptability, customer dedication, corporate social responsibility and industry contributions. The awards’ research board meticulously evaluates nominees through unbiased surveys, ensuring the recognition is merited and aligned with advancing the agricultural sector.
