Applications call for World Bank 2020 Innovation Challenge. It is the initiative of the World Bank’s Agriculture Observatory with the support of Draper University. Moreover, the program is launching three innovation challenges to accelerate the world response to the growing effects of climate change in agriculture and tackle some of the most urgent needs in SADC agriculture and food security today.

Background

The agriculture sector faces increasing risks as natural disasters become more frequent and disruptive due to climate change. Climate change is expected to intensify the following agriculture risks in the South Africa Development Community (SADC):

• Crop failures due to extreme weather events (drought, floods)
• Animal and/or plant pests or diseases
• Food price, agriculture, and trade flow disruptions

Purpose  

To incentivize the development of these risk financing tools, the World Bank is launching the following three challenges with the aim to demonstrate alternative ways of collecting or monitoring critical datasets and indices that can be used to ultimately assess in a granular, scalable and dynamic way the various dimensions of impact-induced by agricultural stressors.

Challenges 

• Challenge 1: Measuring Weather Variables. Learn more about this.
• Challenge 2: Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases.  Learn more about this.
• Challenge 3: Agricultural Data.  Learn more about this.

Benefits 

The winners of each challenge on World Bank 2020 Innovation Challenge will have an opportunity to

• Present to a panel of experts from top international institutions in a Shark Tank format.
• Exhibit their proposal work in a report on agriculture innovations by the World Bank and partners as well as be featured in key media outlets as an innovator in the area.
• Attend the fully-funded award ceremony in Washington, D.C. and also interact with potential partners.

Application 

• Step 1: Go to our application link here.
• Step 2: Fill out the questionnaire, upload a one-minute explanatory YouTube video, write a 500-word project description, and also attach a pitch deck. For the Yield Data challenge, participants must also submit a sample of their data in CSV format.
• Step 3: Submit your application before the close of call: April 2, 2020.

Furthermore, visit this link for more information.