As Nigeria faces a state of emergency over food insecurity, a group of award-winning pre-teen girls believe their innovation can help tackle the problem. The girls—12-year-olds Goodness Nwonanne-Chima and Tiffany Tejiri Oghenemaro, along with 11-year-olds Excel Kiisibari Barile-Nwika and Salome Obehiremen Akhabhau—who call themselves “Smartelite,” have designed an app called AgriConnect. They say this app will connect farmers, landowners, and investors, combining their resources and skills to solve food insecurity and promote local food production in Nigeria.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!According to the girls, their innovation aligns with Goal 2 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to end hunger, achieve food security, and improve nutrition by 2030. Through the AgriConnect app, someone with land but no farming expertise can connect with a farmer who has the skills but lacks land and funding. They can also find investors willing to finance agricultural projects.
Salome explained, “The investor brings the money to fund the farm, the farmer brings the skills and knowledge, and the landowner provides the land. At the end of the day, they all benefit from the farm according to the profit-sharing agreement they make.”
What Inspired the App?
A report by the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture indicated that 31.5 million Nigerians would face food crises and acute hunger between June and August 2024. This alarming prediction inspired the girls to find a solution, particularly since Nigeria’s main food-producing region in the north may not produce enough food. Goodness emphasized, “The solution is for every region in the country to produce its own food.” The girls conducted research and found that 86% of respondents were interested in farming but lacked the resources to start.
This led to the development of the AgriConnect app, which connects farmers with nearby landowners, seedling sellers, and investors. The app also has a section to educate those interested in agriculture but who lack prior knowledge.
From Local Solution to Global Recognition
Due to their innovative project, these young girls won the Beginner Division finalist team of the 2024 Technovation Girls competition, which encourages girls to embrace STEM education. The competition challenges young girls worldwide to use technology to solve environmental problems, with special awards in education, agriculture, and climate change. While school girls from China and Poland won awards for climate change and education, respectively, the Nigerian pre-teens won the Combat Hunger Award for agriculture. Their victory qualifies them among the 15 global winners, granting them further training in California, USA, where they will compete with other teams later this year.
This unexpected win has motivated the girls to learn more about coding and artificial intelligence (AI).
Encouraging Young Girls to Embrace STEM
Their mentor, Somkenechukwu Mamah, sees this app as a powerful demonstration of the girls’ coding lessons and skills, marking a proud moment. Mamah stressed that the main goal is to expose young children to technology and develop their problem-solving skills to identify community problems and use their tech skills to create solutions.
“I am very excited because it feels like hard work has paid off. This Technovation award not only tests their tech skills after completing a 12-week curriculum but also enhances their social skills through group work and brainstorming sessions where they identify societal problems and develop solutions, addressing Goal 2 of the SDG goals—zero hunger,” Mamah stated.
