HealthyDiets4Africa Agribusiness Accelerator Program (Cohort III) for Agri-Innovators

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Applications are open for HealthyDiets4Africa Agribusiness Accelerator Program (Cohort III). Are you a Youth or Woman passionate about transformation of our food systems? Do you have an innovation or enterprise with potential to transform our food system need more necessary knowledge and skills? Join the Agribusiness Accelerator program for Youth and Women in Agribusiness for an opportunity to maximize the potential of your innovation and/or enterprise in transforming the Food System.

As part of the European Union funded HealthyDiets4Africa Project, Food Security for Peace and Nutrition Africa (FSPN-Africa) is engaging youth and women innovators in leading Food System transformation in Kenya through the Youth and Women in Agribusiness Accelerator Program Cohort III. The main goal of the program is empowering, retooling and shaping youth and women-led innovations to scale and be investor ready.

This initiative will provide a platform for you as a participant to improve your innovation and build your business capacity through E-learning, training and linkage to our pool of partners, experts and key resources to support adoption of your Agri-nutrition innovation and consumer traction necessary for scalability.

HealthyDiets4Africa Agribusiness Accelerator Program Benefits

Business development support through training, upscaling, retooling and mentorship.
Total award of $5000 to Top 3 high potential ready-to-scale innovations.
Funding linkage support for high potential ready-to-scale innovations through our partners and investor pool.
Market ecosystem exposure through national and international trade fairs, exhibitions expos and exchange programs.
Access to larger HealthyDiets4Africa project partners for learning and possible collaborations.

Eligibility Criteria

For your innovation/enterprise to be eligible it must fulfill all eligibility criteria listed below.

Address a food system problem in one or more of these thematic areas:
- Sustainable Innovations for Crop Production (solutions that improve productivity and produce safe foods while managing natural resources such water, soil)
- Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture (solutions that produce healthy food by utilizing small spaces)
- Value Addition and Fortification (solutions/process/techniques/enterprises that fortifies indigenous foods or transform raw agricultural products to new products)
- Storage and Post-harvest Handling Innovations (innovations that work to reduce post-harvest food waste and losses.
- Training, Distribution and Aggregation services.
Focus on the Value Chains that are Novel foods and underutilized foods, e.g.:
- Vegetables (mushrooms, African leafy vegetables, pumpkin and/or pumpkin leaves)
- Cereals (finger millet, pearl millet and/or sorghum)
- Tubers (cassava, yams and/or sweet potatoes)
- Legumes (pigeon peas, cow peas, ground nuts, green grams and/or beans)
- Fruits (tree tomato, guava, baobab and any other fruits)
- Livestock (indigenous poultry, insects for feeds and food)
Have presence in Kenya. Makueni, Nairobi, Kitui, Machakos, Kiambu, Kajiado and Murang’a Counties are most highly preferred.
The enterprise should be up to 5 years of operation i.e. Has minimum viable product or prototype.
Clearly shows uniqueness, feasibility and sustainability.

TEAM ELIGIBILITY

You can make a submission for your innovation/enterprise as an individual or a team of not more than ten people.
All applicants and team members should fall within the following age brackets.
- Youth Applicants and Team Members: Age 18-35 years
- Women Applicants and Team Members: Age 35-45 years