Inspire Winners

Demonstrating the power of big data analytics through inspiring and innovative projects

The Inspire Challenge encourages the use of big data approaches to advance agricultural research and development. The winners are groundbreaking innovations with real potential for developmental impact, have mobilized underused or misused data, and demonstrate meaningful partnerships with CGIAR and other sector members.

The Inspire Challenge has to date awarded a total of USD3.225 million to 21 innovative start-up and scale-up projects using big data approaches to advance agricultural research and development.

Croppie - the PhotoCropping app

Croppie – the PhotoCropping app

An Inspire 2020 winning project that proposes to develop a mobile app called Croppie to generate large volumes of ground-truthing ...
N-ALLyzer: From Nitrogen to ALL other nutrients

N-ALLyzer: From Nitrogen to ALL other nutrients

An Inspire 2020 winning project that proposes to develop an app called N-ALLyzer to assist farmers in making optimal economic ...
'On time' predictive alerts for locust action

‘On time’ predictive alerts for locust action

An Inspire 2020 winning project that proposes to develop 360-degree locust monitoring tool that leverages ClimaCell.co’s weather intelligence engine. The ...
Citizen-H2D3

Citizen-H2D3

An Inspire 2020 winning project that proposes to develop a novel and user-friendly tool called Citizen-H2D3, which will shift diet ...
Rapid, Low-Cost Aflatoxin detection using AI

Rapid, Low-Cost Aflatoxin detection using AI

A Inspire 2020 winning project that proposes to improve an existing low-cost portable device for rapid aflatoxin detection in peanuts ...
“Hola Talia”- Boosting extension service through AI

“Hola Talia”- Boosting extension service through AI

An Inspire 2020 winning project that proposes to create TALIA, the first agricultural advisory hotline operated entirely by state-of-the art ...
Big data in resilience of rangeland communities

Big data in resilience of rangeland communities

A Inspire 2020 winning project that proposes to establish the first-ever global data platform, which will consolidate data on rangelands, ...
Gamifying weather forecasting: “Let it rain” campaign

Gamifying weather forecasting: “Let it rain” campaign

2019 Winner Gamifying weather forecasting: “Let it rain” campaign This Inspire Challenge proposal was selected as a 2019 winner, with the ...
Hungry cities: Inclusive food markets in Africa

Hungry cities: Inclusive food markets in Africa

2019 Winner Hungry cities: Inclusive food markets in Africa Food systems serving low-income, urban populations feed billions of consumers around ...
Rapid genomic detection of aquaculture pathogens

Rapid genomic detection of aquaculture pathogens

2019 Winner Rapid genomic detection of aquaculture pathogens The project will pilot a readily deployable “lab-in-a-backpack” for pond-side identification and ...
Real-time East Africa live groundwater use database

Real-time East Africa live groundwater use database

2019 Winner Real-time East Africa live groundwater use database This Inspire Challenge proposal was selected as a 2019 winner, with the ...
Revealing informal food flows through free WiFi

Revealing informal food flows through free WiFi

This Inspire Challenge proposal was selected as a 2018 pilot project and 2019 scale-up runner up project, with the team ...
Machine learning for smarter seed selection

Machine learning for smarter seed selection

The project will develop a system that uses vast amounts of data – including satellite images, performance data, and weather ...
Seeing is believing - Using smartphone camera data

Seeing is believing – Using smartphone camera data

Pictured-based advisories have improved the correlation between insurance payouts and the damage that farmers experience. Farmers are therefore willing to ...
CubicA: The new farmer advisory app

CubicA: The new farmer advisory app

The project has developed a farmer hotline called CubicA, which delivers highly tailored information to callers thanks to a machine-learning ...
An integrated data pipeline for smallscale fisheries

An integrated data pipeline for smallscale fisheries

The project is building an automated data pipeline to help uncover the hidden contribution of small-scale fisheries in Timor Leste ...
MARPLE: Real time diagnostics for devastating wheat rust

MARPLE: Real time diagnostics for devastating wheat rust

The project has developed an affordable, mobile in-field pathogenomics platform called MARPLE (Mobile And Real-time PLant disEase), which provides extremely ...
Farm.ink: Analysing livestock social media data for farmer chatbot

Farm.ink: Analysing livestock social media data for farmer chatbot

The project has built a Facebook community called Africa Farmers Club and mobile chatbot service. A survey of chatbot users revealed ...
Using commercial microwave links (CMLs) to estimate rainfalls

Using commercial microwave links (CMLs) to estimate rainfalls

The project will demonstrate the potential of using recent advances in Commercial Microwave Links (CML) technology to estimate rainfalls in ...
PlantVillage Nuru: Pest and disease monitoring using artificial intelligence

PlantVillage Nuru: Pest and disease monitoring using artificial intelligence

The project expects to radically transform pest and disease monitoring by using artificial intelligence (AI), advanced sensor technology and crowdsourcing ...
Using IVR to connect farmers to market

Using IVR to connect farmers to market

The IVR market service will help aggregate and formalize the value chain by increasing farmers marketability and bargaining power, ensuring ...